^-^j^-^fe^gs^^-*-?^^ 


Copyright  Sir  Benjamin  Stone. 

STATUE  OF  LORD  CHATHAM,  IN  ST.  STEPHEN'S  HALL    WESTMINSTER. 

BY  D.  MACDOWELL,  R.A. 


WILLIAM  PITT 

Earl  of  Chatham 

AND 

THE  GROWTH  AND  DIVISION  OF  THE 
BRITISH  EMPIRE 

I 708- I 778 


WALFORD  DAVIS  GREEN,  M.P. 


4P 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW    YORK  LONDON 

27  WEST  TWENTY-THIRD   STREET  24  BEDFORD   STREET,   STRAND 

S^t  ^mcKetbocher  ^ress 
iqoi 


Copyright,  1900 

BY 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


SPRECKELS 


Ube  ftnfcfteibocltet;  fpvcest  f\cw  Wovit 


TO  MY  MOTHER 

WITH    LOVE    AND    GRATITUDE 
I    DEDICATE   THIS    BOOK 


!  (U)9G2 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTION .  ix 

CHAPTER  I. 
ENTRANCE    INTO    POLITICS.       (1708-1737.)  -      .  .  I 

CHAPTER  II. 
WALPOLE,  CARTERET,  AND  PELHAM.       (1738-I754.)  1$ 

CHAPTER  III. 
PITT  ATTAINS  POWER.     (i754-i757.)     ...      47 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Pitt's  war  ministry.     (1757-1761.)     .        .        ,     103 

CHAPTER  V. 
THE     PEACE      OF     PARIS,      AND      THE     STAMP      ACT. 

(1761-1765.) ^^^-i/i? 

CHAPTER  VI. 
REPEAL   OF    THE   STAMP    ACT.       (1766.)    .  .  .       237 


vl  Contents. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

PAGE 

THE    CHATHAM    MINISTRY.        (1766-1769.)  .  .       267 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    OPPOSITION    TO    PREROGATIVE.       (1770-1772.)        303 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE      ATTEMPT      TO      SAVE      THE      EMPIRE.       (l772- 

1778.) 332 

CHAPTER  X. 

Chatham's    personality    and    historical    po- 
sition       366 

appendix  :     THE    FAMILY    COMPACT    OF    1761                .      383 
INDEX 386 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


STATUE     OF    LORD     CHATHAM,     IN     ST.     STEPHEN  S 

HALL,   WESTMINSTER  *    .         .         Frontisptece 
[By  D.  MacDowell,  R.A.] 

COAT    OF    ARMS ix 


SIR    ROBERT    WALPOLE  ... 

[From  the  painting  by  J.  B.  Van  Loo  (1740)  in  the 
National  Portrait  Gallery.] 

LORD    BOLINGBROKE  .... 

[From  the  bust  by  Rysbrack.] 

THE   DUKE   OF    NEWCASTLE     . 

[From  the  painting  by  Bentley.] 

GEORGE  II 

[From  the  painting  by  Bentley.] 

HENRY   PELHAM 

[From  the  painting  by  Bentley.] 

WILLIAM   PITt" 

[From  the  painting  by  W.  Hoare,  in  the  National 
Portrait  Gallery.] 


10 
22 
38 

44 
94 


*  Copyright,  Sir  Benjamin  Stone. 
2  Copyright,  Walker  &  Cockerell. 


Vll 


Vlll 


Illustrations 


LOUIS    DE    MONTCALM,  .ETAT    29       . 

FRENCH    FORTS    IN    AMERICA,     1750-1760 

ROBERT,  LORD    CLIVE 

MAJOR-GENERAL    JAMES    WOLFE 

PRINCE    FERDINAND  ..... 

ADMIRAL    EDWARD    BOSCAWEN 

LOUISBOURG    MEDALS    OF    1 758 

PLAN    OF    THE.  SIEGE    OF    QUEBEC     . 

MONTCALM    AND    WOLFE    MONUMENT    AT    QUEBEC 

SIR    EDWARD    HAWKE       ..... 

VIEW    OF    MONTREAL    IN    1760 

THE   EARL    OF    BUTE  '       .  .  .  . 

[From  the  painting  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds.] 

HENRY   FOX 

[From  the  painting  by  Bentley.] 

AUGUSTA,    PRINCESS    OF    WALES '      . 

[From  the  painting  by  J.  B.  Van  Loo.] 

EARL    TEMPLE  

LORD    ROCKINGHAM 

[From  the  painting  by  B.  Wilson.] 

FREDERICK    THE    GREAT  .... 

[From  the  engraving  by  Meyer.] 

LORD   CHATHAM 

[From  the  painting  by  R.  Brampton.] 


Copyright,  Gibbings  &  Co. 


Illustrations  ix 


PAGE 

STATUE  OF   LORD   MANSFIELD,  ST.  STEPHEN'S  HALL, 

WESTMINSTER* 306 

[By  E.  H.  Bailey,  R.A.] 

EDMUND   BURKE 324 

[From  the  painting  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds.] 

GEORGE  III 334 

[From  a  painting  by  Allan  Ramsay,  in  the  Na- 
tional Portrait  Gallery.] 

HORACE    WALPOLe'*  ......       340 

[From  the  painting  by  N.   Hone,  in  the  National 
Portrait  Gallery.] 

BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN 348 

[After  the  painting  by  Duplessis.] 


^) 


'  Copyright,  Sir  Benjamin  Stone. 

2  Copyright,  Walker  &  Cockerell.  /</  iJ 


Q  ^ 


COAT  OF  ARMS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

THERE  is  no  good  biography  of  Lord  Chatham  ; 
The  History  of  William  Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham, 
published  in  1827  by  the  Rev.  Francis  Thack- 
eray, and  the  Anecdotes  collected  by  Almon  the 
Printer,  are  both  of  them  fragmentary  and  erratic. 
The  former  served  as  a  text  for  Lord  Macaulay's 
famous  essays,  which  are  the  most  spirited  accounts 
of  Chatham's  career.  In  Mr.  Lecky's  History  of 
England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  there  is  a  sketch 
of  Chatham's  life,  and  I  desire  to  acknowledge  the 
obligation  which  every  writer  on  this  period  must 
owe  to  that  great  work.  The  Correspondence  of 
William  Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham,  edited  by  the  ex- 
ecutors of  his  son,  exasperates  the  student  by  its 
omissions,  but  is  none  the  less  a  valuable  collection. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  full  correspondence  will 
one  day  be  given  to  the  world.  I  have  to  thank 
Lord  Lansdowne  for  permitting  me  to  use  some 
volumes  of  his  Manuscripts,  and  Lord  Edward  Fitz- 
maurice,  M.P.,  for  valuable  suggestions,  and  for 
the  great  courtesy  and  kindness  with  which  he  has 
assisted  me.  The  period  is  peculiarly  rich  in  polit- 
ical memoirs,  and   I   have  given  references  to  the 


xii  Introduction. 


authorities  quoted  in  the  text.  The  letters  and  chron- 
icles of  Horace  Walpole  are  no  doubt,  to  some  extent, 
malicious  and  at  times  inaccurate,  but  as  a  vivid  con- 
temporary criticism,  by  a  writer  of  insight  and  dis- 
cernment thoroughly  conversant  with  affairs,  they 
are  a  mine  of  information  as  well  as  a  treasure-house 
of  delightful  reading.  It  is  unnecessary  to  enumer- 
ate the  other  memoirs,  and  the  many  volumes  pub- 
lished by  the  Historical  Manuscripts  Commission, 
which  throw  light  upon  Chatham.  Most  of  these,  it 
may  be  noted,  have  been  published  since  the  date  of 
Thackeray's  Life  and  Macaulay's  Essays,  The  vast 
collection,  in  the  British  Museum,  of  the  Duke  of 
Newcastle's  papers  is  of  very  great  value.  So  also 
is  Sir  William  Anson's  recently  published  edition  of 
the  Duke  of  Grafton's  Jour^tal, 

Among  the  innumerable  works  of  a  more  general 
character  dealing  with  Chatham's  period,  those  who 
desire  to  follow  in  detail  the  military  and  naval  oper- 
ations which  he  planned  will  find  the  results  of  the 
most  recent  research  embodied  in  the  History  of  the 
Royal  Navy,  edited  by  Mr.  Laird  Clowes,  and  the 
History  of  the  British  Army,  by  the  Hon.  J.  W.  For- 
tescue.  Of  the  war  in  America  the  best  account  is 
in  the  brilliant  writings  of  Parkman.  Entick's  His- 
tory of  the  Late  War  (1764,  five  volumes)  contains 
contemporary  accounts  of  many  battles,  but  is  often 
misleading.  Carlyle,  in  his  Frederick  the  Great,  pro- 
nounces several  characteristic  eulogies  upon  Fred- 
erick's ally.  The  diplomatic  history  of  the  period 
is  admirably  recounted  in  Mr.  Waddington's  two 
volumes,  Louis  XV  et  le  Renversement  des  Alliances 


Introduction.  xlii 


(Paris,  1896)  and  La  Guerre  de  Sept  Ans,  Des  Debuts 
(Paris,  1899).  Professor  Ward's  Great  Britain  and 
Hanover  {OKiord,  1899)  illuminates  much  that  is  per- 
plexing in  English  policy. 

As  regards  the  latter  half  of  Chatham's  life,  and 
his  connection  with  the  resistance  of  the  American 
colonies,  the  History  of  America  edited  by  Dr.  Win- 
sor  is  the  most  comprehensive  authority.  I  desire 
especially  to  mention  two  recent  works  illustrating 
this  period  :  The  Literary  History  of  the  American 
Revolution  :  lydj-iySj,  by  Professor  Coit  Tyler,  and 
A  Short  History  of  British  Colonial  Policy,  by  Mr. 
H.  E.  Egerton.  A  brochure  by  Herr  von  Raville, 
William  Pitt  und  Graf  Bute  {Berlin,  1895),  sets  forth 
a  novel  and  interesting  theory  of  the  connection 
between  the  two  men,  and  attempts  to  prove  that 
Bute  as  well  as  Pitt  was  prosecuting  a  national 
policy.  An  ingenious  American  writer  and  an  Irish 
scholar  have  sought  to  show  that  Lord  Chatham 
was  the  author  of  the  Junius  letters,  but  I  have  re- 
sisted the  temptation  to  discuss  their  theory. 

I  have  also  to  thank  Sir  Benjamin  Stone,  M.P.,  for 
permission  to  use  the  photographs  taken  by  himself 
of  the  Chatham  and  Mansfield  statues  in  St.  Stephen's 
Hall,  Westminster. 

June,  1900.  W.  D.  G. 


WILLIAM  PITT. 


CHAPTER    I. 

ENTRANCE  INTO   POLITICS. 
1708-1737. 

WILLIAM  PITT  was  born  on  November  15, 
1708,  in  the  parish  of  St.  James,  West- 
minster. Industrious  research  has  traced 
his  descent  from  one  Nicholas  Pitt,  who  flourished 
under  Henry  VII.,  but  the  real  founder  of  the 
family  appears  to  have  been  John  Pitt,  a  Clerk 
of  the  Exchequer  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  The 
Pitts  were  settled  at  Blandford,  in  Dorsetshire,  and 
in  Cornwall.  The  great-grandson  of  John  Pitt  was 
Governor  of  Fort  St.  George  and  of  Jamaica,  and  the 
fortunate  possessor  of  the  famous  Pitt  diamond.* 
He  was  selected  as  Governor  of  Madras,  says  the 
historian  of  the  East  Indian  Company,  on  account 
of  his  known  energy  and  ability,  to  put  an  end  to 
dissensions  and    irregularities  in    that    Presidency. 

*  The  stone  was  sold  in  1717  to  the  Regent  Orleans  at  a  profit  of 

;^I00,000. 


William  Pitt.  [1708- 


He  married  Jane  Innes,  who  was  directly  descended 
from  the  Earl  of  Murray,  natural  son  of  James  V. 
of  Scotland.  In  the  days  of  Pitt's  glory,  Scotsmen, 
with  their  keen  genealogical  instinct,  were  able  to 
point  to  this  strain  in  his  blood  as  an  explanation  6i 
all  that  was  loftiest  in  his  character.  Governor  Pitt 
purchased  the  borough  of  Old  Sarum  and  himself 
sat  in  the  House  of  Commons  as  its  representative. 
His  eldest  son,  Robert,  married  the  sister  of  an  Irish 
peer,  the  Earl  of  Grandison,  and  their  second  son, 
William,  was  the  subject  of  this  history.  The  most 
important  political  connection  of  the  family  was 
with  the  Stanhopes,  Lucy,  daughter  of  Governor 
Pitt,  being  the  wife  of  James,  Earl  Stanhope. 

We  know  very  little  of  Pitt's  parents,  but  some 
of  the  family  letters  shed  light  upon  their  character.* 
The  proceedings  of  his  wife  and  children  led  Gov- 
ernor Pitt  to  send  very  irascible  letters  from  Madras, 
but  there  is  much  good  sense,  patriotism,  and  moral- 
ity mixed  up  with  his  diatribes.  "  God  send  a 
miracle  to  save  Old  England  at  last,"  he  prays  in 
the  midst  of  the  Marlborough  wars.  He  held  stern 
views  on  the  virtue  of  economy  at  election  times. 

"  I  have  heard,"  he  writes  to  his  son,  '*  in  what  a 
manner  you  went  down  to  Old  Sarum  against  the  elec- 
tion; sent  down  a  man  cook  some  time  before;  coach 
and  six;  five  or  six  in  liveries;  open  house  for  three  or 
four  months,  and  put  me  to  about  ;£"5oo  charge.  Where 
was  the  need  of  this  ?  It  never  cost  me  above  ;£"io, 
which  was  for  a  dinner  the  day  of  election.  I  had  a 
house  in  London  which  stood  me  in  £,\2o  per  annum. 


*  Hist.  MSS.  Conim.  {Dropmore  MSS.). 


1737]  Entrance  into  Politics.  3 

kept  coach  and  horses,  servants  and  all  answerable, 
always  three  or  four  good  dishes  of  meat  at  my  table, 
as  good  wines  as  the  world  afforded,  and  plenty.  It 
never  exceeded  ^1000  per  annum." 

In  politics  he  was  a  fierce  anti-Jacobite,  and  instilled 
into  his  son  views  of  Parliamentary  honesty  which 
were  rigorously  followed  by  his  grandson.  "  If  you 
are  in  Parliament  show  yourself  on  all  occasions  a 
good  Englishman.  Avoid  faction,  and  never  enter 
the  House  prepossessed.  I  had  rather  any  child  of 
mine  want  than  have  him  get  his  bread  by  voting 
in  the  House  of  Commons." 

Robert  Pitt  wrote,  informing  his  father  of  his 
marriage : 

**  You  always  advised  me  against  a  disreputable  mar- 
riage, which  I  have  avoided  by  marrying  a  lady  of  family 
and  character,  with  the  approval  of  my  mother  and  of 
Uncle  Curgenven.  Her  fortune  is  but  ;^2ooo  and 
;^iooo  more  after  the  death  of  her  father-in-law,  Lieut. 
General  Stewart.  I  hope  I  shall  not  be  abandoned  by 
you  at  a  time  when  I  have  no  other  support  but  yourself, 
since  my  alliance  with  the  greatest  families  in  England 
is  as  much  to  your  credit  as  my  wife  will  be  a  comfort 
to  you  when  you  know  her.  My  present  happiness  is 
altogether  due  to  you,  as  it  was  the  universal  report  of 
your  good  and  generous  character  that  induced  Lady 
Grandison  to  give  me  her  daughter.  Her  age  is  twenty- 
one,  her  portrait  and  letter  herewith  speak  for  them- 
selves; and  I  hope  to  obtain  some  genteel  employment 
by  the  intercession  of  her  relations." 

A  friend,  evidently  employed  to  assist  in  reconcil- 
ing the  stern  parent,  wrote  at  the  same  time : 


William  Pitt.  [1708- 


"  Your  gentlemanly  son  Mr.  Robert  Pitt  does  indeed 
deserve  the  character  of  a  very  ingenious  person,  of  very 
quick  parts.  He  cannot  be  wanting  in  giving  you  a  par- 
ticular account  of  his  marriage,  and  therefore  I  have  only 
to  tell  you  that  the  lady  is  as  beautiful,  as  sensible  and 
as  well-behaved  as  most  I  have  seen  in  my  life.  They 
reside  in  Golden  Square." 

Governor  Pitt  lived  till  his  grandson  William  was 
eighteen,  and  several  references  to  the  boy  in  these 
letters  show  that  his  grandfather  entertained  a  fond- 
ness for  him.  The  personal  knowledge  of  England's 
far  possessions  which  Governor  Pitt  possessed  may- 
have  wakened  in  the  future  statesman  that  instinct- 
ive regard  for  the  Empire  which  always  character- 
ised him.  This  was  perhaps  as  valuable  a  gift  as 
the  annuity  of  £\QO  which  was  left  him  by  the 
Governor's  will. 

Pitt  was  sent  to  Eton,  but  the  turbulent  life  of  a 
public  school  in  the  eighteenth  century  possessed 
no  charm  for  him, 

"  Mr.  William  Pitt,"  wrote  Shelburne,  in  that  master- 
piece of  malicious  criticism,  his  character  of  Pitt,  "  was 
by  all  accounts  a  very  singular  character  from  the  time 
he  went  to  Eton,  where  he  was  distinguished  and  must 
have  had  a  very  early  turn  of  observation,  by  his  telling 
me  that  his  reason  for  preferring  private  to  public  educa- 
tion was  that  he  scarce  observed  a  boy  who  was  not 
cowed  for  life,  at  Eton;  that  a  public  school  might  suit 
a  boy  of  a  turbulent,  forward  disposition,  but  would  not 
do  where  there  was  any  gentleness."  * 

*  Fitzmaurice's  Shelburne   i.    72. 


1737]  Entrance  into  Politics.  5 

The  malady  which  racked  his  body  and  mind  through 
Hfe  attacked  Pitt  while  at  school,  and  at  the  age  of 
sixteen  he  made  his  first  acquaintance  with  gout. 
At  Eton  began  his  historic  friendship  with  George 
Lyttleton,  and  among  other  contemporaries  were 
his  future  rival  Henry  Fox,  Fielding,  and  Charles 
Hanbury  Williams.  He  proceeded  to  Trinity  Col- 
lege, Oxford,  and  continued  those  classical  studies 
which  deeply  influenced  his  mind.  Writing,  in 
later  life,  to  his  nephew,  he  extolled  the  advantage 
of  a  literary  education,  praising  especially  the  great 
names  of  Homer  and  Virgil. 

"  I  hope  you  taste  and  love  those  authors  particularly. 
You  cannot  read  them  too  much;  they  are  not  only  the 
two  greatest  poets,  but  they  contain  the  first  lessons  for 
your  age  to  imbibe;  lessons  of  honour,  courage,  disin- 
terestedness, love  of  truth,  command  of  temper,  gentle- 
ness of  behaviour,  humanity  and  in  one  word,  virtue  in 
its  true  signification."  * 

Pit^t  in  fact  drew  from  the  Latin  writers  a  Roman 
hardiness  and  unflinching  patriotism,  and  if  we  may 
take  the  educational  advice  he  gave  to  his  nephew 
as  evidence  of  his  own  studies,  we  may  conclude 
that  the  poetry  of  Rome,  the  history  of  England, 
and  the  philosophy  of  Locke  were  the  master  influ- 
ences upon  his  mind.  He  admired  Locke  with  the 
true  Whig  fervour,  and  adopted  the  Whig  view  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  At  Oxford  his  health 
was  worse  than  at  Eton,  and  he  left  to  make  the 
grand  tour  without  taking  a  degree. 

*  Chatham  Correspondence^  i,,  62. 


6  William  Pitt.  [1708^ 

On  his  return  he  found  himself  at  the  threshold 
of  a  career  with  very  restricted  means,  but  with 
many  influential  friends  and  relatives.  His  elder 
brother  had  just  been  elected  for  both  Okehampton 
and  Old  Sarum,  and  he  decided  to  sit  for  the  former 
place  and  to  bring  in  William  Pitt  as  junior  mem- 
ber for  Old  Sarum.  Thus  occurred  that  paradox- 
ical conjunction  of  the  most  famous  representative 
of  the  people  with  the  most  notorious  of  rotten 
boroughs.  Pitt  proposed  to  adopt  a  military  as 
well  as  political  career,  and  obtained  a  cornetcy  in 
the  Blues.  It  was  in  1735  thathe  entered  the 
House  of  Commons,  which  was  then  ruled  l^y  the 
strong  will  and  rude  mind  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole. 
The  general  election  of  the  previous  year  had  been 
fought  with  great  eagerness  on  both  sides,  as  the 
excise  scheme  of  1733  had  shaken  the  Ministry  to 
its  foundations.  But  Walpole  returned  with  a  safe 
majority.  He  had  quarrelled  with  every  colleague 
who  had  shown  any  dangerous  brilliancy,  with  Pul- 
teney  and  Carteret  and  Townshend,  and  still  re- 
mained the  sole  Minister  with  power,  using  with 
complacency  the  great  influence  and  mediocre  tal- 
ents of  the  Pelhams,  and  the  somewhat  trivial 
ingenuity  of  his  brother  Horace,  governing  the 
King  through  the  Queen,  and  controlling  the  House 
of  Commons  by  means  of  frank  corruption.  In 
foreign  affairs  he  had  reversed  the  old  Whig  policy 
of  hostility  to  France,  and  had  sought  peace  and 
ensued  it  to  the  verge  of  ignominy.  During  his 
stretch  of  power  the  century-long  struggle  between 
England  and  France  almost  ceased, — as  the  result 


Copyright  Walker  &  Cockerell. 

SIR  ROBERT  WALPOLE. 

FROM  THE  PAINTING  BY  J.  B.  VAN  LOO  (l74o)  IN  THE  NATIONAL  PORTRAIT  GALLERY. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

4dUF0RHAL 


1737]  Entrance  into  Politics,  7 

in  part  of  the  Orleans  regency, — but  if  Walpole 
spared  his  country  the  horrors  of  that  struggle  it 
was  largely  because  his  mind  did  not  grasp  the 
meaning  of  the  long  rivalry  for  empire.  The  in- 
stinct of  the  people  desired  national  expansion,  and 
before  Walpole  fell  he  had  been  forced  to  abandon 
in  despair  his  policy  of  peace  and  to  engage  in  a 
war  that  was  concerned  nominally  with  "  Jenkins's 
ear  '*  and  Spanish  atrocities,  but  in  reality  with  the 
sovereignty  of  the  West.  In  home  affairs  Wal- 
pole's  healthy  common-sense  had  proved  invaluable, 
and  his  preservation  of  peace  had  enabled  the 
country  to  recover  from  the  exhaustion  that  fol- 
lowed Marlborough's  wars  and  the  South  Sea 
madness.  He  had  buttressed  the  throne  of  the 
Hanoverian  dynasty  and  won  many  of  the  country 
gentlemen  from  the  Jacobite  cause.  Advance  in 
prosperity,  the  enjoyment  of  a  sensible  freedom, 
the  absence  of  any  formidable  religious  or  economic 
cause  of  division,  made  Walpole's  earlier  adminis- 
tration acceptable  to  the  people  at  large,  and  only 
when  he  touched  their  pockets  by  an  excise  scheme, 
or  wounded  their  pride  by  appearing  pusillanimous, 
did  he  rouse  any  considerable  opposition  outside 
the  narrow  political  class  which  composed  the 
Parliament. 

But  within  Parliament  Walpole  had  many  vigor- 
ous and  untiring  critics.  The  nominal  division  be- 
tween Whigs  and  Tories  remained,  but  the  cause  of 
this  division  had  almost  disappeared.  There  were 
many  adherents  of  the  exiled  Stuarts,  there  was 
endless  intrigue  on  their  behalf,  but  the  Tory  party 


William  Pitt.  [i708- 


was  by  no  means  exclusively  or  actively  Jacobite.  It 
was  not  strong  numerically,  and  could  have  formed 
no  effective  opposition  against  any  minister  sup- 
ported by  the  Whigs  as  a  whole.  For  the  most  part, 
the  Tories  were  more  interested  in  sport  than  in 
politics,  but  they  possessed  two  leaders  of  great  abil- 
ity. Sir  William  Wyndham  and  Shippen.  Walpole 
himself  said  that  Shippen  was  beyond  corruption, 
and  his  known  probity  gave  him  much  influence, 
while  W^yndham  was  a  brilliant  orator  and  wit,  and 
a  man  of  charming  and  attractive  personality.  The 
sting  of  the  opposition  was  in  the  "  factions,"  in 
the  power  of  those  Whigs  who  had  committed  the 
original  sin  of  schism,  and  still  proclaimed  that  the 
true  Catholic  Whig  doctrines  were  their  own.  At 
their  head  in  the  Commons  was  Pulteney,  the  first 
great  leader  of  opposition  whom  the  House  had 
known ;  while  in  the  Lords,  Carteret,  another  of 
W^alpole's  dismissed  colleagues,  powerfully  and  in- 
cessantly opposed  the  Minister's  measures,  and  re- 
ceived effective  aid  from  the  elaborate  invective  of 
Chesterfield.  Carteret  and  Walpole  really  differed 
in  principle  on  foreign  policy,  the  former  clinging 
to  the  old  system  of  William  III.,  the  latter  sub- 
stituting neutrality  and  diplomacy  for  active  hostili- 
ties; but  until  the  Spanish  question  introduced  new 
considerations  the  difference  of  principle  in  foreign 
policy  was  in  abeyance,  and  the  Parliamentary  con- 
flicts really  meant  that  a  grasping  of  immoderate 
power  had  produced  an  immoderate  opposition. 
Walpole  kept  the  Whigs  in  ofifice  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century,  but  at  the  same  time  he  divided  the  party 


1737]  Entrance  into  Politics.  g 

into  fragments,  and  it  was  this  division  which  made 
it  powerless  to  resist  Bute,  when  that  man  of  destiny- 
arrived  in  1 76 1. 

Outside  Parliament,  Bolingbroke  suggested  plots, 
inspired  invective,  wrote  pamphlets,  and  attracted 
adherents,  against  the  Minister  whose  pedestrian 
industry  had  defeated  his  own  genius,  who  had  ex- 
iled him  and  recalled  him,  and  had  inflicted  upon 
his  pride  the  last  indignity  of  pardon.  It  was  Bol- 
ingbroke who  united  the  discordant  factions  of 
Wyndham,  Carteret,  and  Pulteney;  his  brilliant 
patriotism  attracted  the  young  politicians  of  the 
day  as  strongly  as  Walpole's  cynicism  repelled 
them,  his  literary  fame  and  genius  fascinated  the 
young  writers  to  whom  Walpole  was  only  "  Bob, 
the  poet's  foe."  The  Idea  of  a  Patriot  King  helped 
to  form  the  stubborn  mind  of  George  III.,  and  in- 
flamed the  vanity  of  George  III.'s  father.  Prince 
Frederick  was  a  tower  of  strength  to  the  Opposi- 
tion, but  the  quarrel  in  the  royal  family  strangely 
enough  strengthened  the  dynasty.  It  was  possible 
to  be  in  opposition  to  Government  without  being  a 
foe  to  the  House  of  Brunswick.  The  heir  to  the 
throne  himself  lent  his  name  and  influence  to  those 
who  were  intriguing  against  his  father's  servant, 
and  the  personal  discontents  and  disappointments 
created  by  Walpole  sent  men  not  to  Jacobitism  but 
to  the  Court  of  the  Prince  of  Wales. 

_Pitt_entered    Parliament  at  the  age  of  twenty- 

.seven,  as  one  of  the  ^ *  CoBhalTrcousinhoodT*^  small 

bandol^yDung  men  which  was  the  precursor  of  the 

famous  Grenville  connection.     The  chief  members 


lO  William  Pitt. 


[1708- 


at  this  time  were  Sir  George  Lyttleton  and  Richard 
Grenville,  afterwards  Lord  Temple.  Lyttleton  en- 
joyed the  privilege  of  being  among  the  poets  whose 
lives  were  written  by  Dr.  Johnson,  but  it  was  his 
work  on  the  conversion  of  St.  Paul  rather  than  his 
poetry  which  the  great  critic  selected  for  praise.  In 
politics  he  is  remembered  chiefly  as  the  friend  of 
Pitt;  a  man  of  grave  and  serious  nature,  he  appears 
musing  and  abstracted  among  his  more  eager 
and  violent  contemporaries.  He  could  express  in 
periods  of  proper  weight  principles  that  had  stood 
the  test  of  time,  and  was  impressive  in  debate  when 
the  occasion  favoured  a  prepared  oration.  In  these 
early  days  he  and  Pitt  were  inseparable,  and  the 
man  of  carefully  cultivated  talent  and  sober  tem- 
perament was  an  admirable  counsellor  for  the  man 
of  restless  and  hasty  genius.  Richard  Grenville  re- 
mained the  intimate  of  Pitt  for  a  much  longer  period 
than  Lyttleton.  A  certain  arrogance  and  overbear- 
ing will,  a  rather  boisterous  assertion  of  extended 
claims,  were  doubtful  features  in  his  character,  and 
no  man  ever  used  the  lower  instruments  of  politics 
with  less  hesitation.  None  the  less  the  future  Lord 
Temple  was  immovably  honest  in  purpose,  faithful 
in  friendship,  and  generous  to  those  whom  he 
trusted.  George  Grenville,  his  brother,  joined  the 
party  in  1741,  and  brought  to  it  a  great  share  of 
Parliamentary  talent  and  industry,  with  fixed  prin- 
ciples of  Whig  doctrine  which  were  to  be  applied  in 
a  spirit  of  legalism  to  every  occasion.  If  we  may 
judge  from  his  diary,  there  was  never  any  close 
sympathy  between  him  and  Pitt,  and  the  natures  of 


LORD  BOLINQBROKE. 
FROM  THE  BUST  BY  RVSBRACK. 


1737] 


Entrance  into  Politics,  ii 


the  two  men  were  wholly  diverse.  The  leader  of 
this  band,  Lord  Cobham,  had  quarrelled  with  Wal- 
pole,  and  had  been  deprived  of  his  regiment  of 
horse,  with  the  result  that  he  occupied  an  important 
place  in  the  circle  of  the  Prince  of  Wales. 

In  his  youth,  Pitt  is  said  to  have  been  strikingly 
handsome;  we  have  the  assurance  of  Chesterfield 
that  he  was  very  well-bred,  and  possessed  the  an- 
cient grace  and  courtliness  of  manner.  His  face, 
with  its  hawked  nose  and  piercing  eyes,  was  that  of 
a  man  born  to  rule;  his  voice  filled  the  House  and 
was  heard  in  the  farthest  corners,  even  when  it  sank 
to  a  whisper;  his  gesture  was  impressive  and  dra- 
matic. He  made  his  first  speech  on  April  29,  in 
support  of  an  address  to  the  Crown  moved  by 
Pulteney  on  the  occasion  of  the  Prince  of  Wales's 
marriage.  This  first  effort  received  from  Tindal,  a 
contemporary  annalist,  extravagant  praise,  but  there 
is  nothing  in  the  recorded  reports  to  distinguish  it 
from  other  courtly  efforts.  These  first  speeches, 
however,  must  have  shown  some  promise  of  the 
speaker's  future  greatness,  as  they  received  charac- 
teristic notice  from  Walpole.  **  We  must  muzzle 
this  terrible  cornet  of  horse,"  said  the  Minister,  and 
dismissed  Pitt  from  his  regiment. 

"  The  King,  two  days  ago,"  wrote  Lady  Irwin  to 
Lord  Carlisle,  on  May  20,  1737,  **  turned  out  Mr.  Pitt 
from  a  cornetcy  for  having  voted  and  spoken  in  Parlia- 
ment contrary  to  his  approbation  ;  he  is  a  young  man  of 
no  fortune,  a  very  pretty  speaker,  one  the  Prince  is  par- 
ticular to,  and  under  the  tuition  of  my  Lord  Cobham. 
The  army  is  all  alarme(^fc  this,  and  *t  is  said  it  will 


12  William  Pitt. 


[1708- 


hurt  the  King  more  than  his  removing  my  Lord  Stairs 
and  Lord  Cobham,  since  it  is  making  the  whole  army 
dependent  by  descending  to  resent  a  vote  from  the 
lowest  commission."  * 

Lyttleton  administered  consolation  to  his  friend 
in  bad  verse: 

"  Long  had  thy  virtues  marked  thee  out  for  fame, 
Far,  far  superior  to  a  Cornet's  name  ; 
This  generous  Walpole  saw,  and  grieved  to  find 
So  mean  a  post  disgrace  the  human  mind  ; 
The  servile  standard  from  the  free-born  hand 
He  took  and  bade  thee  lead  the  patriot  band." 

A  great  trial  of  strength  took  place  on  a  motion 
by  Pulteney  praying  the  King  to  settle  ;^  100,000  a 
year  on  the  Prince  of  Wales.  This  was  strongly 
opposed  by  Walpole,  who  dreaded  the  independence 
which  this  income  would  have  conferred  upon  the 
successor.  Pitt  supported  the  motion  in  a  speech 
which  was  not  reported,  but  he  was  evidently  ad- 
vancing in  influence,  as  he  was  singled  out  for  attack 
in  Walpole's  press.  The  extract  is  worth  quoting 
as  an  example  of  the  political  writing  of  those  days. 

"  A  young  man  of  my  acquaintance,"  said  the  Gazet- 
teer^ "  through  an  overbearing  disposition,  and  a  weak 
judgment,  assuming  the  character  of  a  great  man,  which 
he  is  in  no  way  able  to  support,  is  become  the  object  of 
ridicule  instead  of  praise.  My  young  man  has  the  vanity 
to  put  himself  in  the  place  of  TuUy.  But  let  him  con- 
sider that  everyone  who  has  the  same  natural  imperfec- 
tions with  Tully,   has  not  therefore  the  same  natural 

*  Hist.  MSS.  Comm.  {Carlisle  MSS.). 


1737]  Entrance  into  Politics,  13 

perfections,  though  his  neck  should  be  as  long,  his  body- 
as  slender,  yet  his  voice  may  not  be  as  sonorous,  his 
action  may  not  be  as  just." 

The  Craftsman^  duly  defending  Pitt,  pointed  out 
how  much  Athens  would  have  lost  i-f  Demosthenes 
had  been  discouraged  in  his  youth  by  similar  strict- 
ures. 

The  quarrel  between  King  and  Prince  was  at  its 
height  in  the  summer  of  1737,  as  in  this  year  the 
Prince  removed  the  Princess  from  Hampton  Court 
immediately  before  her  confinement,  an  act  intended 
as  an  insult  to  his  father.  Expelled  from  Court, 
the  Prince  of  Wales  set  up  a  separate  household, 
and  appointed  Pitt  and  Lyttleton  his  groom  of  the 
bedchamber  and  private  secretary.  The  intimacy 
between  Pitt  and  the  Prince  at  this  time  is  illustrated 
by  a  story  told  by  Charles  Butler  in  his  Reminis- 
cences. 

"  The  Prince  of  Wales  and  Mr.  Pitt  were  walking  in 
the  gardens  of  Stowe  apart  from  the  general  company, 
who  followed  them  at  some  distance.  They  were  en- 
gaged in  earnest  conversation,  when  Lord  Cobham  ex- 
pressed his  apprehension  to  one  of  his  guests  that  Mr. 
Pitt  would  draw  the  Prince  into  some  measures  of  which 
his  Lordship  disapproved.  The  gentleman  observed 
that  the  tHe-h-tete  could  not  be  of  long  duration.  *  Sir,' 
said  Lord  Cobham,  with  eagerness,  'you  don't  know  Mr. 
Pitt's  talent  of  insinuation  ;  in  a  very  short  quarter  of  an 
hour  he  can  persuade  any  man  of  anything.' " 

The  year  did  not  end  before  a  serious  blow  had 
fallen  on  Walpole  by  the  death  of  the  Queen.     No 


H 


Willimn  Pitt. 


[1708-1737] 


more  remarkable  woman  appeared  in  royal  circles 
throughout  the  eighteenth  century.  She  had  de- 
voted herself  to  the  King,  enduring  slights  to  her 
pride  and  agonies  of  body  rather  than  miss  one 
opportunity  of  influence  ;  a  wise  counsellor,  an 
astute  diplomatist,  she  was  full  of  intelligence,  and, 
recognising  Walpole's  worth,  had  been  unbrokenly 
loyal  to  her  alliance  with  him.  Thus  the  Minister 
was  deprived  of  his  truest  friend  at  the  moment 
when  a  crisis  in  foreign  affairs  was  impending. 


CHAPTER   11. 

WALPOLE,    CARTERET,    AND   PELHAM. 
1738-1754. 

A  DETAILED  examination  of  Pitt's  early  ca- 
reer in  Parliament  would  be  of  little  value. 
It  presented  those  features  of  extravagance 
and  inconsistency  which  are  rarely  absent  from  the 
records  of  those  who  are  compelled  to  force  their 
own  passage  to  the  front.  The  main  interest  of| 
these  years,  spent  in  winning  the  force  and  prestige 
essential  for  the  attainment  of  power,  is  in  the  atti- 
tude Pitt  adopted  towards  Walpole,  Carteret,  and 
Pelham  and  their  differing  policies.  In  considering 
that  attitude  we  shall  find,  in  the  midst  of  declama- 
tion and  invective,  hints  and  foreshadowings  of  the 
national  policy  in  which  Pitt  believed  from  first  to 
last,  which  he  himself  in  later  years  carried  to  a 
triumphant  issue. 

The  first  great  question  that  came  before  Parlia- 
ment in  Pitt's  time  was  the  rivalry  between  England 
and  Spain  for  the_$;Qmiiierce  oLib£-I;?ew~  World. 
It  was  this  which  brought  to  an  issuetHe~Tong 
disputes   on  Walpole's  foreign  policy,  and  finally 

15 


1 6  William  Pitt, 


[1738- 


accomplished  the  great  Peace  Minister's  fall.  The 
4<eynafB^~^-^Jiis  policy  had  been  friendship  with 
^i^i^ancCj  and  this  llad  been  practicable  so  long  as 
France  and  Spain  were  divided.  In  1733,  Kowever, 
The  natural  union  between  the  two  Sourbon  Crowns 
had  been  renewed  by^Family  Compact ;  this  treaty 
of  the  Escurial  was  the  true'orighT  of  the  war  of  the 
Polish  succession,  which  had  been  in  effect  a  Bour- 
bon invasion  of  Italy,  and  Walpole  had  only  avoided 
intervention  in  that  war  by  the  greatest  exertions. 
When,  in  1738,  the  commercial  rivalry  between 
England  and  Spain  became  acute,  Walpole,  seeing 
in  the  background  the  great  family  alliance  against 
British  interests,  desired  to  avoid  war.  Here,  how- 
ever, he  was  dealing  with  a  matter  on  which  the 
English  people  could  not  be  restrained.  They  saw 
their  trade  restricted  and  their  Empire  threatened, 
and  if  they  had  known,  as  Walpole  knew,  the  terms 
of  the  Family  Compact,  they  would  have  been  only 
the  more  eager  for  war.  France  had  agreed  to  as- 
sist Spain  with  all  her  force  by  land  or  sea,  if  Spain 
should  suspend  England's  enjoyment  of  commerce 
and  her  other  advantages.  The  privileges  which 
England  enjoyed  under  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  were 
the  monopoly  of  the  slave-trade  between  Africa 
and  Spanish-America,  and  the  right  to  send  one 
merchant  ship  to  the  annual  fair  of  the  Spanish 
settlements.  The  one  legal  ship  was  accompanied 
by  many  others,  and  a  large  smuggling-trade  was 
carried  on.  Spain  retaliated  by  a  violent  use  of  her 
right  of  free  search,  and  many  stories  of  cruelty  and 
torture  practised  on  English  sailors  were  brought 


1754]  Walpole,   Carteret,  Pelham.  17 

home.  The  Opposition  eagerly  adopted  these 
stories,  and  encouraged  the  demand  for  war.  Wal- 
pole  at  first  minimised  the  English  grievances,  and 
then  tried  to  frighten  Spain  into  submission,  but  in 
the  end  he  was  compelled  to  declare  war. 

Pitt  had  been  among  the  most  vehement  of  the^ 
Opposition,  and  his  speeches  "won  him  taiiiE  The 
Family  Compact,  which  was  renewed  in  1743  and 
1 761,  had  reaffirmed  those  Spanish  ambitions  in 
the  New  World  against  which  England  fought  in 
this  war.  This  agreement  is  of  the  greatest  import- 
ance in  the  understanding  of  Pitt's  career.  It  was 
the  fulfilment  of  those  prospective  dangers  against 
which  William  III.  and  Marlborough  fought.  Wal- 
pole  fell  because  he  either  regarded  it  too  little  or 
dreaded  it  too  much,  but  from  Pitt's  mind  it  was 
never  absent.  It  appears  in  his  first  important 
speech  and  in  the  last  sentence  he  spoke  in  Parlia- 
ment. He  attempted  to  nullify  it  when  he  first 
obtained  power  by  making  large  offers  to  Spain;  he 
disarmed  it  of  its  terrors  by  crushing  France,  and 
resigned  because  at  the  moment  of  its  renewal,  in 
1761,  he  was  not  allowed  to  crush  Spain  also.  His 
instinctive  perception  of  the  fact  that  extensive 
empire  for  England  could  only  be  won  by  defeat  of 
the  Bourbons  made  him  the  greatest  of  War  Min- 
isters, and  his  conviction  that  the  Bourbons  would 
seek  and  obtain  their  revenge,  when  the  Empire 
was  hazarded  by  civil  war,  made  him  the  true  adviser 
of  his  country  in  that  hour  of  perilous  unwisdom. 

Those  who  demanded  war  in  1739  have  often 
been  denounced,  and  it  cannot  be  pretended  that 


1 8  William  Pitt.  [1738- 

England  had  any  moral  ground  to  go  upon.  But  the 
wars  of  the  eighteenth  century  were  not  moral  wars, 
and  a  purely  ethical  judgment  upon  international 
affairs  is  rarely  exhaustive.  The  question  at  issue 
was  whether  Spain  remained  sufficiently  powerful 
to  keep  the  position  she  had  won  as  an  American 
PQwer^,_janii-4;lie^6nTy  way  in  such  a  question 

could  be  raised  and  answered  was  by  a  challenge  to 
arms.  As  Adam  Smith  said,  the  war  was  a  colony 
war,  and,  whatever  the  pretexts,  the  real  object  was 
empire  and  commerce.  It  was  an  incident  in  the 
long  struggle  for  America.  "  When  trade  is  at 
stake,"  said  Pitt,  "it  is  your  last  entrenchment; 
you  must  defend  it  or  perish."  He  pointed  to  the 
English  fleet,  and  the  two  million  people  in  Eng- 
land's American  colonies,  and  declared  that  a  war 
in  America  must  prove  fatal  to  Spain.  But  Europe, 
he  told  Walpole,  sees  that  Spain  has  talked  to  you 
like  your  master.  If  the  war  had  been  properly  con- 
ducted it  would  have  realised  the  gains  anticipated, 
but  it  was  ill-managed,  and  was  obscured  by  the 
European  war  in  which  it  was  merged,  and  as  it  was 
a  war  without  glory  it  has  remained  a  favourite  sub- 
ject of  condemnation. 

It  was  in  March,  1740,  that  Pitt  made  the  answer 
to  Horace  Walpole  the  elder  which  was  polished 
by  Samuel  Johnson  in  his  garret  into  the  classical 
retort  of  youth  upon  age.  Pitt,  defending  himself 
against  the  atrocious  crime  of  being  a  young  man, 
declared,  according  to  Johnson,  that  "  much  more 
is  he  to  be  abhorred,  who,  as  he  has  advanced  in 
age,   has  receded   from  virtue,  and  becomes  more 


1754]  Walpoky  Carteret,  Pelham.  19 

wicked  with  less  temptation."  According  to  the 
story  told  by  Lord  Sydney,  whose  father  was 
present, 

"Mr.  Pitt  got  up  with  great  warmth,  beginning  with 
these  words  :  '  With  the  greatest  reverence  to  the  grey- 
hairs  of  the  honourable  gentleman  ! '  Mr.  Walpole 
pulled  off  his  wig,  and  showed  his  head  covered  with 
grey  hairs  ;  which  occasioned  a  general  laughter  in  which 
Mr.  Pitt  joined,  and  all  warmth  immediately  subsided."  * 

The  general  election  of  1741  proved  fatal  to  Wal- 
pole, who  resigned  office  and  became  Lord  Orford, 
and  an  administration  was  formed  by  a  coalition  be- 
tween the  Pelhams  and  Carteret.  Pulteney  declined 
office  and  became  Earl  of  Bath.  The  Tories,  Ches- 
terfield, and  the  Cobham  cousinhood  were  passed 
over.  There  had  been  an  angry  demand  for  the 
impeachment  of  Walpole,  and  this  question  played 
a  considerable  part  in  the  negotiations  which  led  to 
Carteret's  becoming  Secretary  of  State. 

In  connection  with  these  negotiations,  there  is  a 
story  which,  if  true,  is  very  little  to  the  credit  of  the 
small  party  of  Pitt,  Lyttleton,  and  the  Grenvilles.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  the  story  rests  on  slight  and  biassed 
testimony,  and  there  is  a  somewhat  remarkable  ab- 
sence of  confirmation.     Its  origin  is  to  be  found  in 


*  Coxe's  Horace,  Lord  Walpole,  ii.,  184.  The  Prince  of  Wales 
showed  his  appreciation  of  one  of  Pitt's  speeches  in  a  remarkable 
manner.  "The  Prince,"  wrote  a  member,  "kissed  Mr.  Pitt  in  the 
House  for  his  speech,  which  was  very  pretty  and  more  scurrilous." 
Coxe's  Sir  R.   Walpole,  iii.,  609, 


20  William  Pitt. 


[1738- 


the  pages  of  Glover,  the  author  of  Leonidas  and  of 
Hosier' s  GhostJ^ 

"In  June,  1747,  when  Don  Carlos  (/.  ^.,  the  Prince  of 
Wales)  was  complaining  of  the  ill-treatment  he  had  re- 
ceived from  Mr.  Lyttleton,  Pitt,  and  the  Grenvilles  and 
others,  he  added  that  to  his  certain  knowledge  Mr.  Lyt- 
tleton had  sent  a  letter  to  Sir  Robert  Walpole  by  the 
hands  of  Colonel  Selwyn's  son,  offering  terms  :  among 
other  particulars,  taking  upon  himself  to  answer  for  Don 
Carlos  ;  that  this  letter  was  sent  previous  to  any  accom- 
modation between  Walpole  and  Pulteney,  but  was  re- 
ceived with  the  utmost  contempt  by  Walpole  ;  and  it  is 
certain,  if  Pulteney  deserves  any  share  of  credit,  that 
he  has  constantly  accused  that  part  of  the  Opposition, 
under  which  Lyttleton  was  enlisted,  of  making  the  first 
overtures  to  the  minister  and  consequently  compelling 
him,  by  their  treachery,  to  precipitate  the  treaty.  .  .  . 
Dr.  Ayscough  told  me  that  he  and  Colonel  Lyttleton 
were  present  at  the  meeting  of  Lyttleton  and  young  Mr. 
Selwyn  ;  that  Mr.  Lyttleton  opened  with  offering  a 
secure  retreat  to  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  upon  which  Dr. 
Ayscough  went  out  of  the  room  taking  the  Colonel  with 
him,  and  left  the  other  two  to  themselves.  The  Colonel 
confirmed  this  account  of  Ayscough  to  me  more  than 
once." 

The  story  is  thus  told  with  great  appearance  of 
circumstantiality,  but  there  are  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  its  acceptance,  and  it  must  be  remembered 
that  Glover  had  a  strong  dislike  of  Lyttleton,  and 
that  the  Prince  of  Wales  in  1747  was  at  the  height 

*  Memorials  of  a  Literary  Character  (1814),  p.  4,  n. 


1754]  Walpole,  Carteret,  Pelham,  21 

of  his  animosity  against  Pitt.  Coxe,  the  biographer 
of  Walpole,  who  had  so  vast  a  knowledge  of  the 
private  papers  of  this  period,  evidently  knew  of  no 
confirmation  to  the  story,  as  he  does  not  mention 
it  in  his  earlier  edition,  but  only  in  that  of  18 16, 
when  Glover  is  quoted  as  authority.  It  is  still 
further  remarkable  that  Horace  Walpole,  who  at 
this  time  was  living  with  his  father  in  constant  con- 
fidence and  would  have  greatly  relished  such  a  piece 
of  news  about  Lyttleton  and  Pitt  and  Grenville, 
makes  no  mention  of  any  such  offer  having  been 
made.  But  above  all  it  is  curious  that  Walpole 
should  have  rejected  the  offer  contemptuously,  as 
some  three  weeks  before  his  fall  he  had  sent  a  mes- 
sage through  Bishop  Seeker  to  the  Prince,  offering 
him  an  additional  ;^5o,(X)0  a  year  if  he  would  desist 
from  opposition.  The  Prince's  reply  was  to  the 
effect  that  he  would  listen  to  no  proposals  so  long 
as  Walpole  continued  in  power.* 

This  does  not  preclude  the  possibility  of  such  an 
offer  as  Lyttleton  is  said  to  have  made,  as  Lyttleton 
proposed  not  to  support  Walpole  in  power,  but  to 
screen  him  after  his  fall.  Walpole  may  have  felt 
secure  against  punishment  when  he  persuaded  the 
King  to  send  for  Pulteney  on  the  condition  that  he 
himself  should  be  protected,  but  the  danger  of  an 
impeachment  was  great  enough  to  make  the  Prince's 
support  very  valuable.  Walpole  told  the  King  he 
must  retire  on  February  ist,  but  the  final  division  on 
the  Chippenham  election  did   not  take  place  until 

*  Edw.  Walpole  to  Devonshire,  January  9,  1742,  Coxe's  Sir  R, 
Walpole, 


22  William  Pitt.  [1738- 

February  2d,  and  before  the  division  took  place 
the  Prime  Minister  sent  word  to  the  Prince  of  his 
intention  to  resign.  After  the  resignation  the  Court 
made  further  overtures,  and  the  Prince,  to  whom  the 
additional  ;£"5o,ooo  was  granted,  and  places  offered 
for  two  of  his  friends,  gave  an  interview  to  Walpole 
on  F'ebruary  6th,  and  assured  him  of  his  protection 
in  case  of  attack.  Nevertheless  we  find  Horace 
Walpole  writing  on  February  9th  : 

"  All  is  in  confusion  ;  no  overtures  from  the  Prince^ 
who,  it  must  seem,  proposes  to  be  King.  His  party  have 
persuaded  him  not  to  make  up,  but  on  much  greater  con- 
ditions than  he  first  demanded  ;  in  short,  notwithstand- 
ing his  professions  to  the  Bishop  (Seeker)  he  is  to  insist 
on  the  impeachment  of  Sir  Robert,  saying  now  that  his 
terms  not  being  accepted  at  first,  he  is  not  bound  to  stick 
to  them.  He  is  pushed  on  to  this  violence  by  Argyle, 
Chesterfield,  Cobham,  Sir  John  Hinde  Cotton,  and  Lord 
Marchmont."  * 

Thus  the  action  of  the  Prince  during  the  crisis 
seems  to  have  been,  first!  a  refusal  to  deal  with  Wal- 
pole till  after  his  fall  ;  secon(flV,ran  interview  on 
February  6th,  in  which  he  agreed  to  screen  the  Min- 
ister on  condition  of  the  ;^50,ooo  and  places  for  two 
of  his  friends;  and,  thirdly\a  demand  for  further 
places.  It  is  certainly  almost  incredible  that  Lyttle- 
ton  should  have  made  his  offer  to  Walpole  without 
first  sounding  the  Prince,  but  when  during  these 
days  would    the    Prince   have   sanctioned    such  an 

*  Letters  of  Horace  Walpole,  ed.  by  Peter  Cunningham  (i886),  i., 
125. 


"     THE  DUKE  OF  NEWCASTLE. 

FROM  THE  PAINTING  BY  BENTLEY. 


T754]  Walpole^  Carteret^  Pelham.  23 

offer  ?  It  was  clearly  to  his  advantage  to  wait,  know- 
ing as  he  did  Walpole's  anxiety  to  come  to  terms, 
until  the  Court  made  overtures  to  him.  There  is, 
moreover,  a  certain  inherent  improbability  in  the 
suggestion  that  Pitt  and  Lyttleton  should  have  gone 
behind  the  back  of  Pulteney,  who  had  arrived  at  his 
hour  of  influence,  in  order  to  court  the  favour  of 
Walpole  at  the  moment  of  his  fall.  The  whole 
story,  when  considered  in  the  light  of  the  Prince's 
conduct,  is  shadowy  and  mystifying,  and  certainly 
demands  more  cogent  testimony  than  the  recollec- 
tions of  Glover,  or  the  word  of  Frederick,  Prince  of 
Wales.  * 

In  the  new  Government  there  were  three  im- 
portant Ministers  who  had  been  colleagues  of 
Walpole,  and  remained  as  leaders  of  the  Walpole 
party.  The  Duke  of  Newcastle  was  the  greatest 
master  of  political  patronage  known  in  English  his- 
tory. He  was  Secretary  of  State  from  1724  to  1754, 
and  the  nominal  chief  Minister,  except  for  a  very 
brief  interval,  from  1754  to  1762.  A  ready  debater, 
skilful  in  negotiation,  flexible  in  conviction,  con- 
stantly embarrassed  by  a  superfluity  of  irrelevant 
considerations  and  alarmed  by  the  known  and  un- 
known dangers  of  life,  he  was  a  man  of  tireless  in- 
dustry who  learned  nothing  and  achieved  nothing. 
The  stories  of  his  absurd  sayings  import  into  the 
sober  pages  of  history  an  element  not  of  comedy  but 
of  farce.  He  exercised  considerable  influence  upon 
England,  because  he  kept  out  of  power  men  who 

*  Macaulay  adopts  the  story  because  it  "  appears  in  so  common  a 
book  as  Coxe,"  and  that  of  course  has  given  it  universal  currency. 


24  William  Pitt.  [1738- 

would  have  acted  when  his  will  was  paralysed  and 
blundered  where  he,  by  the  saving  grace  of  inca- 
pacity, did  nothing.  All  forms  of  government  are 
oligarchical,  but  an  oligarchy  founded  on  birth  and 
wealth  is  always  liable  to  throw  up  a  Duke  of  New- 
castle. His  brother,  Henry  Pelham,  was  able  to 
enjoy  in  the  House  of  Commons  the  importance 
which  the  family  influence  bestowed.  The  brothers 
were  very  unlike  in  character,  and  the  younger  had 
a  good  business  mind,  with  the  punctuality,  steadi- 
ness, and  preparedness  which  the  House  of  Com- 
mons has  always  liked.  An  eminently  safe  man, 
with  caution  writ  large  upon  all  his  character,  he 
was  an  excellent  public  servant  and  not  unfitted  to 
succeed  Walpole.  The  other  important  member  of 
Walpole's  Cabinet  was  Lord  Chancellor  Hardwicke, 
a  man  of  astonishing  versatility,  a  brilliant  advocate, 
a  judge  who  was  never  reversed,  a  politician  who 
stood  well  with  all  sections.  Newcastle,  Pelham, 
and  Hardwicke  now  combined  to  meet  the  situation 
produced  by  Walpole's  fall. 

The  new  administration  experienced  all  the  incon- 
venience of  coalition,  and  contained  two  distinct 
parties :  Newcastle,  Pelham,  and  Hardwicke  on  the 
one  side,  on  the  other  the  secret  influence  of  Lord 
Bath,  and  the  aspiring  genius  of  Carteret.  The  Pel- 
ham influence  possessed  the  preponderating  power 
in  the  Commons,  but  Carteret  quickly  gained  the 
ear  of  the  King.  George  H.  had  a  comprehensive 
knowledge  of  German  politics,  and  was  passionately 
attached  to  his  Electorate  of  Hanover;  Carteret 
alone  amongst  English  statesmen  equalled  the  King 


1754]  Walpole,  Carteret,  Pelham,  25 

in  knowledge,  and  his  views  of  policy  were  broad 
enough  incidentally  to  include  the  interests  of  Han- 
over. His  knowledge  of  modern  languages  was  of 
great  advantage  to  him,  and  Newcastle  stood  by 
panic-stricken  while  the  King  and  Carteret  conversed 
in  German.  George  H.  appreciated  strength,  char- 
acter, and  brains  in  his  servants ;  Walpole,  Carteret, 
and  Pitt,  the  three  great  men  of  his  reign,  all  won 
his  confidence,  though  in  the  last  case  it  was  only 
given  after  years  of  suspicion.  Carteret,  indeed, 
appealed  both  to  his  respect  for  genius  and  his  love 
of  Hanover,  and  but  for  the  influence  of  Lord  Or- 
ford,  the  King  might  have  anticipated  the  experi- 
ment of  his  grandson,  and  endeavoured  to  free  the 
Crown  from  subservience  to  the  Whig  oligarchy  by 
ruling  through  this  favourite  Minister.  Orford, 
however,  was  on  the  side  of  the  Pelhams,  and  in  mo- 
ments of  crisis  the  Whigs  could  rely  on  the  supreme 
authority  of  their  former  leader  with  the  King. 

The  Opposition  remained  very  powerful.  In  the 
Lords,  that  wandering  star,  Argyle,  was  at  their 
head,  having  remained  in  office  only  for  a  month, 
while  his  chief  supporter  was  Chesterfield.  The 
latter  was  closely  allied  with  Pitt,  and  was  one  of  the 
first  to  appreciate  his  powers  :  "  I  share  the  marks 
of  your  friendship  to  Mr.  Pitt,"  he  wrote  to  Lord 
Marchmont,  the  friend  of  Bolingbroke ;  "  looking 
upon  everything  that  concerns  him  as  personal  to 
myself."*  Pitt  had,  indeed,  during  his  seven  years 
in  Parliament,  made  himself  one  of  the  powerful 
personalities  of  the  House.     In  the  days  before  strict 

*  Marchmont  Papers  (1831),  ii.,  220. 


26  William  Pitt, 


[1738- 


party  organisation,  votes  were  gained  by  a  great 
speech ;  men  spoke  to  their  hearers,  and  not  to  the 
wider  pubHc  outside ;  a  debate  was  more  than  a 
parade  of  famihar  arguments.  It  was  a  debating 
assembly  and  not  a  body  of  delegates  which  ruled 
the  nation.  Parliament  was  the  theatre  of  the  priv- 
ileged classes,  who  appreciated  a  combat  of  debate 
as  keenly  as  they  enjoyed  a  race  on  Newmarket 
Heath.  Matters  of  serious  importance  were  decided 
mainly  by  patronage,  places,  pensions,  and  all  the 
devices  of  corruption,  but  none  the  less  great  powers 
of  speech  won  for  a  man  the  impartial  admiration  of 
all  parties,  and,  if  they  did  no  more,  at  least  raised 
the  market  price  of  his  vote.  Debate  was  a  rivalry 
in  which  all  sought  to  excel,  whether  stirred  by  the 
noble  infirmity  of  ambition  or  by  more  mercenary 
motives.  The  power  of  that  oratory  which  rapidly 
gave  Pitt  an  outstanding  position  in  the  House  is 
proved  by  his  success,  though  we  possess  so  slight 
evidence  of  his  speeches  in  the  reports.  Philip  Yorke 
wrote  to  his  brother  in  November,  1742,  '*  Pitt  grows 
the  most  popular  speaker  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  is  at  the  head  of  his  party."  "^  Another  letter  of 
the  same  year,  written  by  Mr.  Oswald,  contains  an 
interesting  comparison  of  Pitt  with  Murray,  who  was 
one  of  the  few  lawyers  as  powerful  in  the  House  as 
at  the  bar. 

"  Murray  spoke  like  a  pleader,  and  could  not  divest 
himself  of  a  certain  appearance  of  having  been  employed 
by  others.     The  other  (Pitt)  spoke  like  a  gentleman,  like 

*  Harris's  Life  of  Haj-dwicke. 


1754]  Walpole,  Carteret,  Pelham.  27 

a  statesman,  who  felt  what  he  said,  and  possessed  the 
strongest  desire  of  conveying  that  feeling  to  others  for 
their  own  interest,  and  that  of  their  country.  Murray 
gains  your  attention  by  the  perspicacity  of  his  arguments, 
and  the  elegance  of  his  diction,  Pitt  commands  your 
attention  and  respect  by  the  nobleness,  the  greatness  of 
his  sentiments,  the  strength  and  energy  of  his  expressions, 
and  the  certainty  you  are  in  of  his  always  rising  to  a 
greater  elevation  both  of  thought  and  style.  For  this 
talent  he  possesses  beyond  any  speaker  I  ever  heard,  of 
never  failing  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  his  speech, 
either  in  thought  or  expression.  And  as  in  this  session 
he  has  begun  to  speak  like  a  man  of  business,  as  well  as 
an  orator,  he  will  in  all  probability  be,  or  rather  at  present 
is,  allowed  to  make  as  great  an  appearance  as  ever  man 
did  in  that  House.  ...  I  daresay  you  will  scarcely  be 
able  to  read  this  scrawl,  which  I  have  drawn  to  an  im- 
measurable length,  from  the  difficulty  I  find  in  having 
done  when  Pitt  is  the  subject,  for  I  think  him  sincerely 
the  most  finished  character  I  ever  knew."  * 

That  contemporary  opinion  gives  us  a  sufficient 
idea  of  the  position  held  by  Pitt  w^hen,  having  won 
fame  by  his  criticism  of  Walpole,  he  increased  that 
fame  by  his  criticism  of  Walpole's  former  rival  and 
present  successor. 

The  fall  of  Walpole  marked  the  end  of  an  epoch. 
Walpole's  steady  aim  was  to  live  at  peace  with 
France,  Carteret's  profoundest  conviction  was  that 
France  was  the  destined  enemy  of  England.  Car- 
teret stands  midway  between  Walpole  and  Pitt ;  he 

*  Thackeray's  Life  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham,  i.,  96,  quoting  Memo- 
rials of  yames  Oswald  {iS2^). 


i 


28  William  Pitt, 


[1738- 


proposed  to  fight  France  but  he  subordinated  naval 
and  colonial  war  to  an  European  contest,  whereas 
Pitt  thought  first  of  the  contest  on  the  sea  and  in 
America  and  India.  Carteret  belonged  to  an  older 
school  of  political  thought,  and  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  regard  a  skirmish  on  the  banks  of  some  lone- 
ly American  lake  as  equal  in  importance  to  any  con- 
test on  the  historical  battle-fields  of  Europe.  He 
immersed  his  mind  in  the  complications  of  European 
diplomacy,  and  no  man  could  trace  more  clearly  the 
skeins  of  that  tangled  web ;  but  the  changing  com- 
binations of  Continental  Powers  clouded  his  mind  to 
the  vital  issue  which  might  have  been  fought  out 
in  the  colonies  and  on  the  sea.  Fascinated  by  the 
politics  of  dynastic  intrigue,  he  proved  himself  a 
powerful  diplomatist  in  Europe,  but  failed  to  achieve 
any  great  benefit  for  his  own  country  because  his 
vision  was  limited  to  the  Old  World.  He  remains 
a  prototype  among  Ministers  of  the  spirited  foreign 
policy  and  vigorous  measures  school,  and  nothing  is 
more  characteristic  of  him  than  his  famous  saying 
to  Henry  Fox :  ''  I  want  to  instil  a  nobler  ambition 
into  you.  I  want  you  to  knock  the  heads  of  the 
Kings  of  Europe  together  and  see  whether  you  can- 
not jumble  out  something  of  ^advantage  to  this  coun- 
try." Such  was  the  method  of  his  diplomacy,  while 
the  ideal  of  his  policy  was  to  unite  all  Germany  with 
Holland,  "England,  and  Sardinia,  and  if  possible 
Russia,  as  the  predominant  Power  of  the  north, 
against  France.  '*  I  always  traverse  the  views  of 
France,"  he  himself  said,^  "  in  place  or  out  of  place  ; 


*  Ballantyne's  Carteret,  p.  261. 


1754]  Walpole,  Carteret,  Pelham.  29 

for  France  will  ruin  this  nation  if  it  can."  When 
he  found  himself  in  power  in  February,  1742,  he  at 
once  set  himself  to  serve  this  object  with  skill,  per- 
sistency, and  unrivalled  knowledge  of  European 
affairs.  He  gave  all  his  energies  to  the  higher  ob- 
jects of  politics  as  fully  as  Pitt  did  in  later  life,  and 
like  Pitt  he  left  questions  of  management  to  his  col- 
leagues Newcastle  and  Pelham  ;  but  unlike  Pitt  he 
possessed  in  no  degree  the  power  of  influencing  and 
magnetising  the  nation  at  large.  Relying  only  on  his 
own  genius  and  the  support  of  the  King,  he  found  in 
the  hour  of  need  that  these  things  availed  nothing 
against  those  who  controlled  the  House  of  Commons. 
It  is  impossible  to  recount  in  detail  the  successes 
and  failures  of  Carteret's  policy  in  connection  with 
the  war  of  the  Austrian  Succession.  The  Emperor 
Charles  VI.  was  succeeded  in  1740  by  his  daughter 
Maria  Theresa  ;  the  Pragmatic  Sanction,  guaranteed 
by  all  the  great  Powers,  served  only  to  illustrate  the 
idleness  of  international  oaths.  Frederick  the  Great 
began  his  reign  over  Prussia  by  claiming  a  large  part 
of  Silesia  from  the  young  Queen,  and  France  sup- 
ported the  claim  of  the  Bavarian  Elector  to  the  Im- 
perial dignity,  which  had  so  long  been  associated 
with  the  Hapsburgs,  and  was  now  sought  by  Maria 
Theresa's  husband.  Europe  was  soon  "embroiled  in 
a  great  conflict,  and  Carteret  eagerly  supported  flie 
Austrian  cause.  He  persuaded  Maria  Theresa  in 
1742  to  pay  Frederick's  price,  and  by  the  Treaty  of 
Breslau  detached  Prussia  from  France.  This  was 
a  considerable  success,  but  Prussia  soon  afterwards 
re-entered  the  war.     Carteret's  aim  was  now  to  act 


^ 

^ 


30  William  Pitt.  [1738- 

aggressively  against  France,  and  he  agreed  to  take 
an  army  of  sixteen  thousand  Hanoverians  into  the 
pay  of  Great  Britain.  In  the  previous  year  George 
II.  had  entered  into  a  treaty  of  neutrahty  for  his 
Electorate  and  it  was  always  his  aim  to  assist  the 
.Austrian  cause  by  means  of  his  British  treasury. 
The  neutrality  had  created  a  feeling  of  discontent, 
but  the  payment  of  Hanoverians  caused  a  violent 
agitation. 

The  Parliamentary  leaders  of  this  agitation  were 
Chesterfield  and  Pitt,  and  the  subject  was  exactly 
suited  to  Pitt's  inflammatory  invective.  "  The  troops 
of  Hanover  whom  we  are  now  expected  to  pay,"  said 
he,  "  marched  to  the  place  most  distant  from  the 
enemy,  least  in  danger  of  an  attack  if  any  attack  had 
been  designed ;  nor  had  they  any  claim  to  be  paid 
but  that  they  had  left  their  own  country  for  a  place 
of  safety."  "  It  is  now  too  apparent  that  this  great, 
this  powerful,  this  formidable  nation,  is  considered 
only  as  a  Province  to  a  despicable  Electorate."  In 
July,  1743,  the  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury  died,  and 
the  post  was  given  to  Henry  Pelham.  This  was  an 
important  appointment,  as  Carteret's  wishes  in  the 
matter  were  overruled,  and  it  was  now  believed  that 
the  Pelhams  were  the  men  of  the  future.  The  party 
to  which  Pitt  belonged  henceforth  showed  a  tend- 
ency to  distinguish  between  the  First  Lord  and  the 
Foreign  Secretary  in  favour  of  the  former.  Thesis- 
agreement  between  them  within  the  Cabinet  was 
well  known,  and  Pelham  was  anxious  to  strengthen 
himself  by  taking  into  ofifice  a  section  of  the  Oppos- 
ition.    The  old  Whig  leader,  Lord  Orford,  had  so 


1754]  Walpole^  Carteret,  Pel  ham.  31 

far  overcome  his  contempt  for  Boy  Patriots  as  to 
write  to  the  new  First  Lord,  "  Pitt  is  thought  able 
and  formidable ;  try  him  or  show  him."  Pitt  con- 
tinued his  violent  attacks  on  Carteret  with  the  con- 
sciousness that  they  were  pleasing  to  the  Pelhams. 
He  described  him  as  *'  an  execrable  and  a  sole 
minister  who  had  renounced  the  British  nation,  and 
seemed  to  have  drunk  of  the  potion  described  in 
poetic  fiction  which  made  men  forget  their  country." 
On  another  occasion  Carteret  was  *'  a  flagitious  task- 
master, a  Hanoverian  troop  minister  ;  they  were  his 
party,  his  placemen,  he  had  conquered  the  Cabinet 
by  their  means."  This  invective  served  its  purpose 
in  marking  out  Carteret,  but  although  the  Minister's 
policy  was  reckless  and  he  paid  too  much  attention 
to  Germanic  schemes  against  France,  the  accusation 
that  he  was  Hanoverian  and  not  English  was  wholly 
unjust.  Pitt,  absorbing  all  the  popular  prejudices 
against  the  Electorate,  expressed  them  with  great 
effect,  and  probably  with  entire  sincerity.  It  was 
hardly  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  King  should  har- 
bour resentment  against  this  furious  antagonist  of 
his  native  land. 

During  1744  Carteret's  plans  fared  badly  and  the 
Pelhams  improved  their  opportunity  against  him. 
They  insisted  on  the  necessity  of  a  Dutch  alliance, 
and  a  memorial  avowedly  hostile  to  Carteret  was 
presented  to  the  King.*  Carteret  realised  that  he 
must  either  secure  the  mastery  or  resign,  and  he 
made  overtures  to  the  Prince  of  Wales ;  there,  how- 
ever, he  had  been  forestalled  by  Newcastle,  who  had 

*Coxe's  Pelham^  i.,  177-185  for  text. 


32  William  Pitt.  [1738- 

already  secured  the  first  refusal  of  assistance  from 
the  Opposition  chiefs.  It  was  debated  by  the  latter 
whether  or  not  they  should  join  the  Pelhams  with- 
out stipulation.  Bedford,  Chesterfield,  Gower,  Pitt, 
and  Lyttleton  voted  aye,  while  Cobham,  Waller, 
Doddington,  and  Sir  John  Hynde  Cotton  were 
for  making  conditions.  ^  A  week  or  two  earlier 
Pitt  had  expressed  a  very  unflattering  opinion  of 
the  Ministers  he  now  proposed  to  join :  in  an  inter- 
view with  Bolingbroke  he  described  them  as  weak 
men,  incapable  of  concert,  and  in  all  their  steps  inse- 
cure ;  he  thought  any  union  with  them  quite  impos- 
sible ;  they  were  contemptible,  and  he  was  angry 
with  such  and  such,  particularly  Pelham.f  Boling- 
broke in  reply  to  this  tirade  told  Pitt  that  he  was  a 
young  man,  and  must  not  mix  passions  with  business, 
and  apparently  this  very  salutary  advice  made  a 
proper  impression.  Carteret,  finding  that  the  Op- 
position leaders  were  firm  for  the  Pelhams,  resigned 
on  November  24,  1744,  and  the  administration  was 
strengthened  by  the  accession  of  the  Bedford  and 
Cobham  connections,  with  a  sprinkling  of  Tories 
such  as  Gower,  Doddington,  and  Hynde  Cotton. 
The  Whig  party  was  almost  reunited,  and  Pelham 
enjoyed  the  good  fortune  denied  to  Walpole  of  rul- 
ing the  House  of  Commons  without  opposition. 

Although  Pitt  was  qualified  by  his  pre-eminence 
in  the  House  for  high  ofifice,  the  King  was  so  deeply 
offended  by  his  speeches  against  Hanover  that  he 
absolutely  decUned  to  admit  him  to  any  post.     Pitt 

*  Glover,  Memorials,  p.  35. 
f  Marchmont  Facers,  i.,  71. 


1754]  Walpole,  Carteret,  Pel/mm,  t^2> 

himself  had  proposed  that  he  should  be  Secretary  of 
War,  and  the  Pelhams  had  recognised  his  power  by 
admitting  his  claims;  but  the  King  resented  the  dis- 
missal of  Carteret  by  the  Whig  junta,  and  the  Pel- 
hams  dared  not  further  offend  him  by  pressing  Pitt's 
name. 

"The  great  Mr.  Pitt,"  wrote  Horace  Walpole  the 
elder,  "  having  insisted  upon  being  Secretary  of  War, 
and  the  King  not  agreeing  to  remove  Sir  W.  Yonge,  he 
declined  taking  anything  ;  but  't  is  said  has  promised  to 
support  their  measures.  Whether  the  desire  of  making 
a  still  greater  and  more  popular  figure  in  the  House  will 
not  tempt  him  to  break  his  word,  time  must  show."* 

Time  showed  that  Pelham  had  secured  a  trustworthy 
ally  ;  Pitt's  friends,  Lyttleton  and  Grenville,  were 
given  minor  places  in  the  new  Broad  Bottom  Minis- 
try, and  Pitt  after  ten  years  in  Parliament  found 
himself  for  the  first  time  a  supporter  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. He  had  won  fame  outside  the  House  by 
his  eloquence  and  by  his  fearless  invective  against 
Hanover.  Sarah,  Duchess  of  Marlborough,  died  in 
October  of  this  year  and  bequeathed  to  Pitt  the  sum 
of  ten  thousand  pounds, ''  upon  account  of  his  merit, 
in  the  noble  defence  he  has  made  for  the  support  of 
the  laws  of  England,  and  to  prevent  the  ruin  of  his 
country."  Pitt  may  well  have  prided  himself  on 
this  recognition  of  his  merit  by  one  who  had  known 
great  men,  who  was  profoundly  scornful  of  all  fools, 
cowards,  and  incompetents,  and  was  not  easily  moved 
to  praise  or  generosity.     The  legacy   itself  was  of 

*  Coxe's  Horace^  Lord  Walpole^  ii.,  io6. 
3 


34  William  Pitt,  ri738- 

great  value  to  one  whose  means  were  as  limited 
as  Pitt's,  and  whose  ideas  of  expenditure  were  as 
grandiose.  Naturally  enough  the  wits,  who  from 
the  first  were  attracted  by  Pitt's  flamboyant  air, 
made  merry  over  the  coincidence  in  time  of  this  re- 
ward for  patriotism  and  cessation  from  active  oppos- 
ition, and  congratulated  Pitt  that  the  Duchess  had 
not  lived  three  months  longer.  Bolingbroke,  who 
had  urged  Pitt's  claim  upon  the  Duchess,  noticed 
that  Pitt  displayed  more  independence  after  his  in- 
crease of  fortune,  and  hinted  that  he  was  extremely 
supercilious  and  did  not  show  the  deference  that  was 
due  to  one  who  had  negotiated  Utrecht,  conspired 
with  Atterbury,  and  instilled  the  philosophy  of  na- 
ture into  Pope.  ''  Mr.  Pitt,"  was  the  verdict  of  the 
veteran  diplomatist  and  dilettante,  '*  is  a  young  man 
of  fine  parts,  but  he  is  narrow,  does  not  know  much 
of  the  world,  and  is  a  little  too  dogmatical."  ^ 

Though  Carteret  was  out,  and  Newcastle  was  be- 
come the  guiding  spirit,  no  change  of  principle  could 
be  seen  in  foreign  policy.  Newcastle  quickly  proved 
himself  even  more  subservient  to  the  King  than  Car- 
teret had  been,  but  the  vigour  and  dash  of  his  pre- 
decessor were  altogether  lacking  in  this  flurried  and 
anxious  ruler.  Some  improvement  in  Europe  fol- 
lowed the  death  of  the  Emperor  Charles  ^bert 
(January,  1745),  as  peace  was  made  between  Maria 
Theresa  and  the  new  Bavarian  Elector,  while  her 
husband  secured  the  Imperial  crown  ;  England  signed 
a  convention  with  Frederick  in  August,  1745,  and 
Austria  was  compelled  again  formally  to  renounce 
*  Marcht/iont  Papers,  i. ,  80. 


17541  Walpole^  Carteret^  Pelham.  35 

Silesia  in  the  Treaty  of  Dresden  (December,  1745). 
The  Dutch  were  persuaded  to  make  an  offensive 
aUiance  with  England  against  France,  but  the  cam- 
paign, which  included  the  defeat  of  Fontenoy,  de- 
monstrated the  worthlessness  of  the  policy  on  which 
the  Pelhams  and  Pitt  set  such  great  store.  The 
Hanoverians  were  no  longer  in  British  pay,  but  by 
a  transparent  device  the  subsidy  to  Austria  was  in- 
creased in  order  that  Maria  Theresa  might  pay 
them.  In  Italy,  the  Bourbon  cause  was  completely 
victorious ;  and  the  effect  of  Fontenoy  was  seen  in 
the  Jacobite  rising,  that  last  gallant  effort  of  a  chi- 
valrous folly.  The  year  proved  that  the  Whig  oli- 
garchy was  no  more  competent  than  Carteret  to 
prosecute  the  war  to  any  valuable  end  ;  the  King 
desired  a  more  vigorous  Minister,  the  people  desired 
peace.  The  brightest  feature  of  the  year  was  the 
capture  of  Louisburg  by  New  England  colonists, 
a  success  which  clearly  pointed  the  way  for  Pitt's 
later  campaigns. 

Pitt  was  prepared  to  prove  himself  as  vigorous  in 
support  as  he  had  shown  himself  in  opposition.  He 
resigned  his  appointment  under  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
and  going  down  to  the  House  with  a  fit  of  the  gout 
upon  him,  and  with  the  mien  and  apparatus  of  an  in- 
valid, he  declared  in  his  uniquely  impressive  manner 
that  if  that  were  the  last  day  of  his  life  he  would 
spend  it  in  the  House  of  Commons,  for  the  situation 
of  his  country  was  even  worse  than  that  of  his  own 
health.  A  great  actor  Pitt  must  have  been,  for  the 
calculated  solemnity  of  the  many  speeches  he  de- 
livered in  this  mood  of  approaching  dissolution  never 


36  William  Pitt,  [1733- 

failed  to  tell,  and  they  were  spoken  to  an  assembly 
which  has  always  boasted  a  keen  sense  of  the  absurd. 
It  could  not  be  said  of  him,  as  was  said  of  a  great 
man  a  century  later,  that  he  affected  affectation  ;  his 
manner  had  an  air  of  theatrical  falsity,  but  it  was  not 
donned  for  an  occasion  and  doffed  when  the  occasion 
was  served.  His  solemn  words  and  action  flowed 
from  deep  and  sincere  feelings,  they  were  the  out- 
ward and  visible  signs  of  a  personality  that  sought 
always  the  most  impressive  pose,  the  most  striking 
and  ebullient  expression.  On  this  occasion,  he  paid  a 
lofty  compliment  to  Pelham  for  his  moderate  and 
healing  measures. 

"  I  think  a  dawn  of  salvation  to  this  country  has  broken 
forth,  and  am  determined  to  follow  it,  so  far  as  it  will 
lead  me.  I  should  be  the  greatest  dupe  in  the  world,  if 
those  now  at  the  helm  do  not  intend  the  honour  of  their 
master  and  the  good  of  the  nation  ;  should  I  find  myself 
deceived,  nothing  will  remain  but  to  act  with  an  honest 
despair." 

When  the  Jacobite  rebellion  startled  the  country 
and  caused  a  disgraceful  panic  in  London,  Pitt 
steadily  supported  the  measures  he  believed  neces- 
sary for  its  suppression,  but  he  declined  to  support 
the  employment  of  foreign  troops  for  suppressing  the 
revolt. 

"  We  had  yesterday,"  writes  Horace  Walpole,  Decem- 
ber 20, 1745,  "  a  very  remarkable  day  in  the  House  ;  the 
King  notified  his  having  sent  for  six  thousand  Hessians 
into  Scotland,  Mr.  Pelham  for  an  address  of  thanks. 
Lord  Cornbury  (indeed  an  exceedingly  honest  man)  was 


1754]  Walpole,  Carteret,  Pel  ham,  37 

for  thanking  for  the  notice,  not  for  sending  for  the 
troops  ;  and  proposed  to  add  a  representation  of  the 
national  being  the  only  constitutional  troops,  and  he 
hoped  we  should  be  exonerated  of  those  foreigners  as 
soon  as  possible.  Pitt  and  that  clan  joined  him  ;  but  the 
voice  of  the  House,  and  the  desires  of  the  whole  King- 
dom for  all  the  troops  we  can  get,  were  so  strong,  that 
on  the  division  we  were  190  to  44."* 

Apart  from  this  incident,  Pitt  supported  the  Min- 
isters, and  v^as  never  suspected  of  any  disloyalty  to 
the  Hanoverian  Succession  and  the  great  principles 
,  it  represented.  When  Jacobitism  had  shown  itself 
and  had  been  finally  crushed,  the  standing  reproach 
against  Toryism  was  removed,  and  the  ground  was 
prepared  for  that  complete  national  unity  which 
enabled  Pitt  in  later  life  to  act  as  a  national  and  not 
a  party  Minister.  The  cleavage  of  the  British  people 
into  two  hostile  camps  was  at  an  end. 

The  aecasion  of  the  revolt  was  characteristically 
chosen  by  the  Whig  leaders  as  a  favourable  oppor- 
tunity of  teaching  their  sovereign  a  lesson,  and  as  a 
result  of  their  action  Pitt  entered  ofi&ee.  The  Pel- 
liams,  who,  a^ccording  to  Horace  Walpole,  had  been 
alternately  bullied  and  flattered  by  Pitt,  were  anxious 
to  secure  his  absolute  support  by  giving  him  a  place, 
and  once  more  urged  his  claims  upon  the  King. 
George  II.,  so  far  from  wishing  to  make  further  con- 
cessions to  the  Pelhams,  desired  to  restore  Carteret, 
now  Earl  Granville,  and  Bath,  and  in  February,  1746, 
he  opened  communications  with  them.  Was  a  King, 
he  asked,  to  be  forced  to  admit  a  person  obnoxious 

*  Letters t  i.,  412. 


38  William  Pitt.  [1739- 

to  himself  ?     Horace    Walpole   the    elder  wrote  a 
memorial  strongly  urging  the  sovereign  to  yield. 

"  There  remains  only  this  squadron  of  Lord  Cobham 
to  make  the  once  formidable  body  of  Patriots  of  no  con- 
sequence. If  this  squadron  should  be  admitted,  and 
joined  to  the  old  Whig  corps,  his  Majesty's  business 
would  probably  be  carried  on  well  by  this  coalition,  until 
the  end  of  this  Parliament ;  the  Whig  party  would  again 
be  united, and  there  would  be  a  hopeful  prospect  of  getting 
a  new  Parliament  of  principles  thoroughly  attached  to 
his  Majesty's  person  and  Government."  * 

Bath  and  Granville  gave  directly  opposite  advice. 
The  former  coming  out  of  the  King's  closet  said  to 
Harrington  :  *'  I  have  advised  the  King  to  negative 
the  appointment  of  Mr.  Pitt,  and  to  pursue  proper 
measures  on  the  Continent."  "Those  who  dictate  in 
private,"  was  the  reply,  "  should  be  employed  in 
public."  The  Ministers  resolved  to  show  the  King 
that  he  could  not  carry  on  the  Government  without 
them,  and  at  the  same  time  to  make  a  striking  pro- 
test against  secret  dealings  with  Bath.  Harrington, 
Newcastle,  Pelham,  and  all  the  important  members 
of  the  Ministry  resigned.  The  King  at  once  sent 
for  Bath  and  Granville,  who  set  about  making  an 
administration  that  was  to  be  supported  by  their  col- 
lective forces  of  thirty-one  peers  and  eighty  common- 
ers. "  For  two  days,"  said  the  wits,  "  it  was  unsafe 
to  be  abroad  in  the  streets  for  fear  of  being  pressed 
for  a  Cabinet  Counsellor."  f   The  uneven  struggle  was 

*Coxe's  Horace^  Lord  Walpole,  ii.,  140, 

f  Pitt  ten  years  later  made  a  characteristic  reference  to  this  briefest 


GEORGE  II. 

FROM  THE  PAINTING  BY  BENTLEY. 


1754]  Walpole,  Carteret^  Pelham.  39 

quickly  ended  ;  the  King  was  forced  to  take  back  his 
rebelHous  servants  and  to  yield  to  their  request, 
which  they  had  made  a  matter  of  principle,  that  Pitt 
should  receive  a  post.  He  did  not  become  Secretary 
of  War,  but  was  made  Vice-Treasurer  of  Ireland  on 
February  22,  1746,  and  shortly  afterwards  was  given' 
tho^Tucr^iive  atid  important  place  of  Paymaster- 
General.  Newcastle,  writing  to  Chesterfield  an  ac- 
count of  this  official  earthquake,  gives  an  amusing 
picture  of  George  II. 's  affronted  dignity  when  Pitt 
was  thus  pressed  upon  him.  "  The  King  insisted 
that  he  would  not  make  Pitt  Secretary  of  War ;  after- 
wards that  he  would  use  him  ill  if  he  had  it,  and  at 
last  that  he  would  give  him  the  office,  but  would  not 
admit  him  into  his  presence  to  do  the  business  of  it. 
.  .  .  Mr.  Pitt  very  decently  and  honourably  author- 
ised us  to  renounce  all  his  pretensions  to  the  office."* 
''■  Pitt,"  wrote  Marchmont,  *'  in  many  pretty  words 
said  he  would  not  go  into  the  closet  against  the 
King's  will."  f  Pitt's  entry  into  office  was  memor- 
able not  only  in  his  career,  but  as  a  reassertion  of 
the  controlling  power  held  by  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, or  by  those   who   themselves  were  masters 

in    that    House  ;    h^jTJrn^H^    '^y    his     own— ^:»er<;rrrml 

power,  without  the  aid  of  social  influence,  had  com- 
pelled the  Pelhams  to  accept iuoiylaftd  they -iiijLiieir- 
turn,  as  a  result  of  the  power  which  their  political 
connections  embodied,  were  able  to  frustrate  the  far 


of  all  administrations  :  "I  saw  that  Ministry  :  in  the  morning  it 
flourished  ;  it  was  green  at  noon  ;  by  night  it  was  cut  down  and  for- 
gotten." 

*  Coxa's  Pelham,  i.,  292.  f  Marchmont  Papers^  i,,  171. 


40  Willia7n  Pitt.  [1738- 

superior  abilities  of  Carteret,  and  to  impose  their  will 
upon  the  King.  Pitt,  who  was  to  prove  himself  the 
first  national  and  democratic  statesman  of  the  eight- 
eenth century,  became  Vice-Treasurer  of  Ireland  as 
the  result  of  a  striking  demonstration  of  oligarchical 
power. 

The  caricaturists  and  pamphleteers  were  beginning 
to  find  Pitt  great  enough  for  their  attacks ;  the  Op- 
position hero  in  office  was  represented  as  a  kind  of 
perverted  patriot. 

'  Pitt  seems  at  present,"  wrote  Philip  Yorke  in  April, 
1746,  "the  object  of  satyrical  squibs.  There  is  a  print 
and  a  ballad  out  against  him  already.  The  first  is  the 
Duchess  of  Marlborough's  ghost  appearing  to  reproach 
him  for  his  inconsistent  conduct.  The  second  is  en- 
titled '  The  unembarrassed  countenance,'  alluding  to  an 
expression  of  his  in  the  House."* 

Pitt  gave,  by  his  conduct  on  becoming  Paymaster, 
a  very  remarkable  answer  to  his  detractors.  It  had 
been  customary  for  all  who  held  his  office  to  make 
large  additions  to  the  salary  by  two  expedients, 
which  were  recognised  as  customary  perquisites, 
though  they  were  illegal.  ;^  100,000  of  public  money 
was  held  in  advance  and  the  interest  retained  by  the 
Paymaster  as  his  own,  while  on  every  subsidy  granted 
by  England,  the  Paymaster  retained  one  half  per 
cent,  as  commission.  Pitt  paid  the  ;^  100,000  into  the 
Bank  of  England  that  it  might  be  immediately  at  the 
public  call,  and  declined  to  take  any  commission  on 
subsidies.     The  King  of  Sardinia  was  perplexed  by 

*  Harris's  Zi'iair^TmVi^i?,  ii.,  235. 


1754]  Walpole,  Carteret^  Pelham.       .      41 

this  conduct,  and  offered  Pitt  as  a  present  the  com- 
mission he  might  have  retained  on  the  Sardinian 
subsidy.  The  gift  was  respectfully  declined.  This 
conduct,  so  characteristic  of  the  man  both  in  its 
honesty  and  its  ostentation,  made  a  great  impression 
on  the  nation  and  startled  Pitt's  fellow-politicians. 
Corruption  in  English  politics  was  the  curse  of  the 
aristocratic  system,  but  it  was  not  crushed  by  legis- 
lation or  by  reform  of  the  constituencies,  or  by  any 
external  influence.  It  passed  away  under  the  rule 
of  Pitt's  son,  partly,  no  doubt,  because  the  tension  of 
the  Napoleonic  wars  made  public  life  more  serious 
and  strenuous,  but  chiefly  because  public  opinion 
had  been  educated  by  a  few  men  of  loftier  mind. 
Among  poHticians,  the  two  Pitts  exercised  the  widest 
and  purest  influence  in  this  matter.  The  refusal  of 
illicit  gain  was  no  doubt  ostentatious,  but  the  man 
who  first  proclaims  a  stricter  rule  of  conduct  is  always 
open  to  the  sneer  that  he  is  trying  to  appear  more 
virtuous  than  his  fellows.  Pitt,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered, was  a  poor  man,  at  the  threshold  of  a  career 
in  which  wealth  meant  power,  and  his  disinterested- 
ness involved  genuine  sacrifice.  The  people,  who 
were  fully  aware  of  the  corruption  that  reigned  in 
political  circles,  saw  that  Pitt  was  really  to  be  dis- 
tinguished from  the  crowd  of  members  who  accepted 
the  Walpole  tradition,  and  George  II.  was  impressed 
by  this  evidence  of  honesty. 

The  King  was  persuaded  to  take  a  more' favour- 
able view  of  Pitt  by  the  zeal  he  showed  in  advo- 
cating a  reward  for  Cumberland's  victory  over  the 
Jacobites   at   Culloden.     The   new    Paymaster   was 


42      .  William  Pitt.  [1733- 

anxious  to  stand  well  with  the  old  Whig  party.     He 
succeeded  in  impressing  Pelham,  who  told  Newcas- 
tle that  Pitt  had  the  dignity  of  Wyndham,  the  wit 
of  Pulteney,  and   the  knowledge  and  judgment  of 
Walpole.     Pitt,  wrote  Newcastle,  *'  said  all  that  was 
right  for  the  King,  kind  and  respectful  to  the  old 
corps,  and  resolute  and  contemptuous  of  the  Tory 
Opposition."  ^    Again,  when  the  pension  for  Cumber- 
land was  first  mentioned,  Newcastle  wrote  :    '*  Mr. 
Pitt  has   distinguished  himself   by  his    forwardness 
upon  this  occasion,  and  has  been  of  great  use  to  us.   \ 
The  King  insists  upon  his  moving  (the  vote  of  thanks) ;    i 
but  the  Premier  thinks  that  honour  should  be  con-  ^ 
ferred   upon   him."  f      George  Grenville,   writing   a^ 
rather  splenetic  Memoir  in  1762,  says  that  Pitt  \ 

"  took  the  strongest  part  with  the  Administration,  and 
endeavoured  by  all  possible  means  to  gain  the  confidence 
of  the  remains  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole's  party,  for  which 
purpose  he  publicly  disclaimed  his  former  conduct. 
This  gave  the  last  blow  to  all  intercourse  between  Lord 
Cobham  and  him.  Having  detached  Mr.  James  Gren- 
ville from  Lord  Cobham,  he  appointed  him  his  Deputy- 
Paymaster,  which  greatly  irritated  Lord  Cobham.  The 
rupture  between  Lord  Cobham  and  Mr.  Pitt  likewise 
produced  great  uneasiness  and  coldness  from  Lord  Cob- 
ham to  Lord  Temple  and  myself  ;  for  though  I  was  de- 
termined to  preserve  every  mark  of  duty  and  attachment 
to  my  uncle,  I  still  supported  Lord  Temple  and  Mr. 
Pitt  on  every  occasion  which  his  political  conduct  gave 
rise  to."  J 

*  Coxe's  Pelham,  i.,  309.  f  Ibid.,  485. 

\  Grenville  Papers,  i.,  424. 


1764]  Walpole^  Carteret,  Pelkam.  43 

Thus,  the  Cobham  cousinhood  had  become  the  Gren- 
ville  connection,  and  it  is  clear  that  even  George 
Grehville  accepted  Pitt  as  leader.  By  this  time, 
Pitt  had  shed  the  patronage  not  only  of  Lord  Cob- 
ham  but  also  that  of  Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales, 
who  when  Pitt  was  proposed  for  Secretary  of  War 
diverted  himself  by  sending  a  letter  to  Harrington 
suggesting  Miss  Chudleigh  as  more  suitable  for  the 
post  than  Pitt.* 

The  Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  ended  the  war  in 
1 748>3t'inlr1<^  the  rise  ot  PrussTa  as  a]great  power, 
but  the  restitution  of  Cap^  Breton  to  France  m  ex- 
change for  Madras  left  the  question  6i  supremacy 
in  America  and  India  still  undecided.  The  balance 
of  power  remained  undisturbed  ;  France  had  won 
great  glory  but  no  extension  of  territory  ;  Austria 
had  been  impoverished  by  the  loss  of  Silesia,  but  an- 
other great  German  Power  had  arisen  which  divided 
the  German  race,  yet  was  strong  enough  to  prove  a 
sufficient  ally  for  England  against  France  ;  the  policy 
of  the  Dutch  alliance  had  been  shown  to  be  obsolete 
and  ineffective,  but  England's  sea-power  was  undis- 
puted and  the  comparative  failure"oFtheContinental 
campaigns  proclaimed  that  she  must  trust  to  her  sea- 
power  more  fully.  The  Spanish  Right  of  Search, 
which  had  provoked  the  original  quarrel  in  1739,  was 
not  even  mentioned  at  the  peace,  and  the  war  which 
had  begun  as  a  colony  quarrel  had  ended  with  no 
fresh  advantages  for  the  Empire  of  Great  Britain. 
The  peace  was  welcomed  by  Pitt  as  **  absolutely 
necessary  for  our  very  being,"  and  the  conduct  of  the 

*  Horace  Walpole's  Letters^  i.,  407. 


44  William  Pitt.  [1738- 

war  may  well  have  taught  him  that  English  interests 
were  best  served  not  by  an  active  part  in  the 
dynastic  combinations  of  Europe,  but  by  concen- 
trated efforts  in  America  and  India,  where  a  wider 
colonial  and  commercial  empire  might  be  won. 

The  Duke  of  Newcastle  was  much  occupied  during 
the  following  years  in  subsidising  various  electors  of 
the  Empire  in  order  to  secure  the  election  of  the 
Archduke  Joseph  as  King  of  the  Romans.  Pelham 
objected  to  the  expense  involved  in  this  extensive 
purchase  of  votes,  and  the  elder  Horace  Walpole 
also  opposed  the  system.  Pitt,  who  at  this  time  at- 
tached himself  closely  to  Newcastle,  defended  the 
policy,  but  was  evidently  impressed  by  Walpole's 
arguments.*  Newcastle  was  even  more  anxious  to 
turn  out  the  Duke  of  Bedford  than  to  elect  the 
Archduke  Joseph,  and  this  scheme  closely  interested 
Pitt,  as  his  most  prominent  rival  in  the  House  was 
Henry  Fox,  an  ally  if  not  a  member  of  the  Bedford 
connection.  During  the  later  years  of  Pelham's 
leadership,  this  rivalry  became  more  marked,  but  it 
is  remarkable  that  when  Fox,  on  Chesterfield's  re- 
signation, was  talked  of  for  Secretary,  he  wrote  that 
the  House  of  Commons  was  in  his  favour  ''  and  none 
more  loudly  than  Pitt  and  Lyttleton."  f  Newcastle 
and  Pelham  differed  as  to  the  advisability  of  turning 
out  Bedford,  and  this  led  to  Pitt's  affirming  his  alle- 
giance to  the  Duke,  :f  and  at  the  same  time  reconcil- 
ing to  the  best  of  his  ability  the  different  views  of 


*  See  his  letter,  Coxe's  Horace,  Lord  Walpole,  ii.,  346. 

f  Coxe's  Pelham,  i.,  391. 

\  Ibid.^  ii.,  313,  314,  and  Chatham  Correspondence^  i.,  31-56. 


HENRY  PELHAM. 

FROM  THE  PAINTING  BY  BENTLEY. 


1754]  Walpole,  Carteret,  Pelham,  45 

the  two  brothers.  Bedford  and  Sandwich  retired  in 
175 1,  and  Fox,  though  he  remained  in  office,  was 
still  their  friend  and  associate.  His  vehement  op- 
position to  Hardwicke's  Marriage  Bill  lost  him  the 
friendship  of  the  Lord  Chancellor,  who  from  that 
time  preferred  the  claims  of  Pitt.  Fox  identified 
himself  with  no  general  scheme  of  policy,  but  he  was 
singularly  gifted  with  the  qualities  that  give  influ- 
ence in  the  House  of  Commons — a  robust  common- 
sense,  a  rough  wit,  and  the  temperament  of  a  fighting 
party  leader.  He  frankly  accepted  the  view  that 
the  object  of  politics  is  office,  and  his  opposition  to 
the  Marriage  Bill  was  the  only  occasion  when  he 
showed  any  real  depth  of  conviction.  He  had  al- 
ways been  a  member  of  the  Whig  party,  and  was 
looked  upon  by  the  general  body  of  Whigs  as  one 
who  had  done  good  service — not  to  the  State  but  to 
the  party — and  was  therefore  deserving  of  reward. 
His  popularity  in  the  House  was  far  greater  than 
that  of  Pitt,  who  never  practised  the  arts  which 
produce  personal  liking  and  affection.  Pitt  looked 
to  the  nation  for  support  and  sought  great  policies 
to  serve  ;  Fox  devoted  himself  to  politicians,  and 
thought  of  a  policy  as  a  lawyer  thinks  of  his  cause. 

The  years  1748  to  1754  were  marked  by  the  care- 
ful economy  of  Pelham,  but  by  few  legislative  meas- 
ures that  remain  of  interest.  In  one  case  Pitt  broke 
away  from  his  allegiance,  when  Pelham  proposed  to 
reduce  the  number  of  seamen  from  ten  thousand 
to  eight  thousand.  "The  fleet,"  said  Pitt,  'Ms  our 
standing  army,"  and  with  many  compliments  to  Pel- 
ham on  other  matters  he  and  his  party  voted  against 


46  William  Pitt.  [1738-1764] 

the  reduction.  A  Bill  for  naturalising  Jews  caused  a 
great  outburst  of  religious  prejudice,  to  which  Pel- 
ham  yielded  and  Pitt  with  him,  but  on  the  Planta- 
tion Act,  which  naturalised  Jews  after  a  residence 
of  seven  years  in  any  of  the  American  colonies,  Pel- 
ham  remained  firm  and  Pitt  spoke  for  the  Bill, 
Such  report  of  his  speech  as  remains  shows  that 
he  held  a  characteristically  English  compromise  on 
matters  of  ecclesiastical  policy. 

"  Here  the  stand  must  be  made  or  venit  summa  dies,  we 
should  have  a  Church  spirit  revived.  The  late  clamour 
was  only  a  little  election  art,  which  was  courteously- 
given  way  to.  The  former  Bill  was  not  a  tolerance  of 
but  a  preference  given  to  Jews  over  other  sects.  My 
maxim  is  not  to  do  more  for  the  Church  than  it  now  en- 
joys. Now  you  would  except  the  Jews  in  the  opposite 
extreme  ;  it  is  the  Jew  to-day  ;  it  would  be  the  Pres- 
byterian to-morrow  :  we  should  be  sure  to  have  a  septen- 
nial Church  clamour.  We  are  not  now  to  be  influenced  by 
old  laws  enacted  before  the  Reformation  :  our  ancestors 
would  have  said,  '  A  Lollard  has  no  right  to  inherit 
lands.'  "  * 


*  Walpole's  Memoirs  of  George  II.  (1847),  i-.  3^6. 


CHAPTER  III. 

PITT    ATTAINS   POWER. 
1754-1757. 

HENRY  PELHAM  died  on  March  6,  1754,  and 
the  Duke  of  JiJLewcastle  was  left  to  fight  the 
family  Battles  by  himself.  There  had  been 
many  feuds  within  the  Cabinet,  but  the  brothers 
rarely  failed'  to  compose  their  differences  when  any 
considerable  enemy  threatened  their  hegemony  over 
the  Whig  connections ;  they  many  times  ceased  to 
hold  any  intercourse  with  each  other,  but  always 
employed  some  amiable  intermediary,  through  whom 
communication  might  be  made,  and  by  whom  recon- 
ciliation might  be  effected  when  the  hour  of  danger 
arrived.  Government  by  Cabinet  has  frequently 
required  the  exercise  of  moderating  and  healing 
qualities,  by  such  colleagues  of  the  great  as  are 
naturally  fitted  to  perform  the  functions  of  a  buffer- 
state  between  rival  and  encroaching  Powers.  The 
Pelhams  had  found  Hardwicke  invaluable  for  such  a 
purpose,  and  the  Chancellor  still  survived  to  be  the 
confidant  of  Newcastle's  fears  and  jealousies,  the 
adviser  of  his  policy  and  intrigues,  the  arbiter  of  his 

47 


48  William  Pitt.  [1754- 

disputes.  In  1750,  Pitt  himself  seems  to  have  been 
useful  in  patching  up  one  breach  between  the 
brothers,  but  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  any  man 
less  fitted  to  act  as  moderator  over  the  fussy,  fretful, 
minute  distractions  of  Newcastle,  for  Pitt  all  through 
his  life  was  singularly  distinguished  from  his  contem- 
poraries by  his  contempt  for  the  personal  and  family 
contests  which  to  most  politicians  seemed  of  so 
immediate  and  pressing  an  importance.  While  he 
was  indeed  full  of  ambition,  and  of  a  contemptuous 
pride  which  made  him  the  most  difficult  of  colleagues 
and  the  most  confident  of  leaders,  neither  his  ambi- 
tion nor  his  pride  was  that  of  the  politician,  anxious 
about  patronage  or  precedence,  filled  with  the  lust 
of  office  for  office  sake,  but  was  that  of  the  states- 
man who  desired  to  set  in  motion  a  great  policy.  In 
deliberating  over  the  probability  of  his  ever  attain- 
ing a  position  of  control,  Pitt  must  have  realised 
that  the  obstacles  in  his  way  were  very  great.  First 
and  greatest  was  the  royal  disfavour,  which  had  been 
mitigated  but  never  removed  ;  against  that  disfavour 
Pitt  could  not  rely  again  on  an  oligarchic  demonstra- 
tion such  as  that  of  1746,  but  for  some  time  he 
endeavoured  to  secure  an  advocate  with  the  King 
by  paying  court  to  Newcastle,  t^  whom  on  one 
occasion  he  wrote :  "  Nothing  can  touch  me  so 
sensibly  as  any  good  office  in  that  place,  where  I  de- 
servedly stand  in  need  of  it  so  much,  and  where  I 
have  it  so  much  at  heart  to  efface  the  past  by  every 
action  of  my  life."  "^  How  far  the  Pelhams  kept 
their  promise  of  pleading  with  the  King  for  Pitt  we 

*  Chatham  Correspondence^  i.,  49. 


1757]  Piit  Attains  Power.  49 

cannot  tell,  but  his  great  anxiety  to  advance  in  that 
direction  kept  Pitt  faithful  to  the  brothers,  who  now- 
shared  the  royal  confidence,  against  the  rival  Bed- 
ford party.  Pelham  wrote  a  well-known  tribute  to 
Pitt,  whom  he  described  as  **  the  most  able  and  use- 
ful man  we  have  amongst  us ;  truly  honourable  and 
strictly  honest.  He  is  as  firm  a  friend  to  us  as  we 
can  wish  for  ;  and  a  more  useful  one  there  does  not 
exist."  *  Notwithstanding  the  friendship  of  Pelham 
and  of  the  elder  Horace  Walpole,  Pitt  never  seems 
to  have  secured  the  favour  of^thejold  Wh.ig.^rty  ;  the 
GrenviTle  cousmhood  was  regarded  by  the  heredit- 
ary  orhce-holders  as  a  rather'^liiggfesStVir-^and  -pre- 
sumptuous faction,  and  Pitt's  brilliant  talents  were 
distrusted  as  much  as  they  were  admired.  Like 
many  men  who  have  been  eminent  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  he  was  more  feared  than  loved^  by  the^ 
body  of  ordinary  members. 

It  was  probably  despair  of  the  King's-f^^oury^and 
annoyance  at  this  Whig  suspicion,  which  led  Pitt  to, 
revive  his  former  connection^Maili--4ht?--fceTcester 
House  party.  The  Prince  of  Wales  died  in  175 1, 
and  the  Princess  Dowager  acted  for  two  years  with 
so  much  discreet  wisdom  that  she  obtained  the 
King's  pardon  for  all  the  opposition  to  his  will  of 
which  in  former  days  the  Prince  and  herself  had  been 
guilty.  For  some  years  before  his  death,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  Prince  had  regarded  Pitt  with  the  greatest 
enmity  ;  but  circumstances  favoured  a  renewal  of  the 
earlier  relations  between  the  Grenvilles  and  Leicester 
House.     The  Duke  of  Cumberland,  a  man  of  strong 

*  Coxe's /*^/i^aw,  ii.,  370. 

4 


50  William  Pitt,  [1754- 

character  and  great  ability,  was  a  more  important 
personage  after  175 1  than  when  his  elder  brother 
lived  ;  and  he  seems  always  to  have  been  regarded 
with  great  jealousy  by  the  Princess,  a  jealousy  stimu- 
lated by  the  debates  over  their  relative  powers  in  the 
event  of  a  regency.  The  Duke's  favourite  politician 
was  Fox,  his  favourite  party  the  Bedfords ;  and  it 
was  natural  enough  that  the  Princess  should  turn  to 
Pitt  and  the  Grenvilles,  her  former  servants,  and  the 
sworn  foes  of  those  who  were  now  allied  with  the 
Duke.  The  Leicester  House  influence  in  1754  was 
not  extensive,  and  it  was  not  exerted  so  actively  as 
in  the  following  year,  when  the  proposed  Brunswick 
marriage  for  Prince  George  seriously  alarmed  his 
mother,  and  urged  her  into  regular  opposition. 

The  long  reign  of  Walpole  had  made  the  House  of 
Commons  the  predominant  power  in  the  Constitu- 
tion, and  the  events  of  1754-1757  proved  to  New- 
castle and  the  King  that  they  could  only  govern 
through  that  assembly.  There  was  no  difificulty  in 
deciding  who  should  be  first  Minister,  as  Newcastle 
settled  that  by  taking  the  Treasury,  but  that  great 
engrosser  of  office  was  puzzled  to  find  a  man  who 
should  consent  at  the  same  time  to  rule  the  House 
of  Commons  and  obey  the  Duke  of  Newcastle.  By 
common  consent  three  men  possessed  strong  claims 
for  the  leadership, — Pitt,  Fox,  and  Murray,  —  but 
there  were  difficulties  in  the  case  of  each.  Murray 
was  under  some  suspicion  of  Jacobitism,  Fox  was  dis- 
liked by  the  Scotch  and  hated  by  Hardwicke,  Pitt 
had  no  great  party  at  his  back  and  was  opposed  by 
the  King.      Newcastle  felt  that  he  was  for  the  time 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power,  51 

secure  of  Murray  ;  he  sent  friendly  assurances  to 
Pitt,  who  was  ill  with  gout  at  Bath  ;  and  he  opened  a 
negotiation  in  set  form  with  Fox,  who  was  offered 
and  accepted  the  seals  of  Secretary  of  State.  Fox 
accepted  this  proposal  under  the  impression  that  he 
was  to  lead  and  manage  the  House  of  Commons,  but 
he  speedily  discovered  that  Newcastle  intended  to 
keep  patronage  and  corruption,  the  disposal  of  the 
secret-service  money,  in  his  own  hands,  and  that  the 
great  office  which  had  been  offered  to  himself  was  to 
be  robbed  of  all  its  independence.  **  But  how,"  asked 
Fox  in  amazement,  *'  how  shall  I  know  how  to  talk 
to  members  of  Parliament,  when  some  may  have  re- 
ceived gratifications,  others  not  ?  "  On  this  vital 
point  Newcastle  remained  firm  ;  he  was  not  the  man 
to  delegate  to  another  the  control  of  the  purse  ;  and 
Fox,  after  some  consideration,  found  courage  to  re- 
ject the  great  post,  to  which  such  ignominious  terms 
had  been  attached.  Newcastle,  searching  the  crowds 
of  mediocrity  for  a  subordinate,  made  the  great  dis- 
covery of  his  life.  Sir  Thomas  Robinson. 

"  Sir  Thomas,"  writes  Horace  Walpole  in  his  most  en- 
tertaining manner,  "  had  been  bred  in  German  courts, 
and  was  rather  restored  than  naturalised  to  the  genius  of 
that  country  :  he  had  German  honour,  loved  German 
politics,  and  could  explain  himself  as  little  as  if  he  spoke 
only  German.  He  might  have  remained  in  obscurity, 
if  the  Duke  of  Newcastle's  necessity  of  employing  men 
of  talents  inferior  even  to  his  own,  and  his  alacrity  in 
discovering  persons  so  qualified  had  not  dragged  poor 
Sir  Thomas  into  light  and  ridicule  ;  yet,  if  the  Duke 
had   intended  to  please  his  master,  he  could  not  have 


52  William  Pitt.  [1754- 

succeeded  more  happily  than  by  presenting  him  with  so 
congenial  a  servant :  the  King,  with  such  a  Secretary  in 
his  closet,  felt  himself  in  the  very  Elysium  of  Herren- 
hausen  !  " * 

In  his  choice  of  this  formal  mediocrity  for  leader  of 
the  Commons,  and  in  his  determination  to  do  with- 
out either  Fox  or  Pitt,  Newcastle  showed  greater 
courage  than  at  any  other  period  in  his  life ;  he 
gained  time,  and  secured  what  Hardwicke  described 
as  the  immediate  fundamental  object — the  election 
of  a  new  House  on  Pelham's  plan.  So  apathetic,  or 
so  despairing,  towards  political  measures  and  men 
were  the  people  of  England,  on  the  eve  of  one  of 
their  greatest  struggles,  that  throughout  the  country 
there  were  only  forty-two  seats  contested  in  the  gen- 
eral election  of  1754,  and  the  new  Parliament  pro- 
vided a  great  majority  for  Sir  Thomas  Robinson. 

During  the  progress  of  these  negotiations  Pitt  had 
been  an  exile  at  Bath,  the  victim  of  a  severe  attack 
of  gout.  On  the  day  following  Pelham's  death,  he 
sent  "to  Lyttleton  and  the  Brotherhood  "  a  letter  of 
instructions  for  the  party,  from  which  it  is  clear  that 
he  expected  substantial  promotion,  though  he  did 
not  expect  the  first  place. 

"  My  own  object  for  the  public  is  to  support  the  King 
in  quiet  as  long  as  he  may  have  to  live  ;  and  to  strengthen 
the  hands  of  the  Princess  of  Wales,  as  much  as  may  be, 
in  order  to  maintain  her  power  in  the  Government,  in 
case  of     .     .     .     the  King's  demise.     .     .     .     As  to  the 

*  Walpole's  Memoirs  of  George  II.,  i.,  388. 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power.  53 

Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  Mr.  Fox  in  point  of  party, 
seniority  in  the  Corps,  and  I  think  ability  for  Treasury 
and  House  of  Commons  business,  stands,  upon  the 
whole,  first  of  any.  ...  A  real  share  in  Govern- 
ment is  necessary  for  our  little  connection."  * 

To  Temple,  Pitt  wrote  the  following  advice,  which 
declares  frankly  a  plan  common  among  politicians 
but  rarely  avowed.  The  essence  of  his  *'  whole  poor 
plan  "  was 

"  to  talk  moderately,  to  declare  attachment  to  the 
King's  Government,  and  the  future  plan  under  the 
Princess^  neither  to  intend  nor  intimate  the  quitting 
the  service,  to  give  no  terrors  by  talking  big,  to 
make  no  declaration  of  thinking  ourselves  free  by  Mr. 
Pelham's  death,  to  look  out  and  fish  in  troubled  waters, 
and  perhaps  help  trouble  them  in  order  to  fish  the  bet- 
ter :  but  to  profess  and  to  resolve  bond  fide  to  act  like 
public  men  in  a  dangerous  conjuncture  for  our  country, 
and  to  support  Government  when  they  will  please  to 
settle  it  ;  to  let  them  see  we  shall  do  this  from  principles 
of  public  good^  not  as  the  bubbles  of  a  few  fair  words  with- 
out effects  (all  this  civilly),  and  to  be  collected  by  them, 
not  expressed  by  us  ;  to  leave  them  under  the  impres- 
sions of  their  own  fears  and  resentments,  the  only 
friends  we  shall  ever  have  at  Court,  but  to  say  not  a 
syllable  which  can  scatter  terrors  or  imply  menaces. 
Their  fears  will  increase  by  what  we  avoid  saying  con- 
cernifig persons  (though  what  I  think  of  Fox,  etc.,  is  much 
fixed),  and  by  saying  very  explicitly^  as  I  have  (but 
civilly),  that  we  have  our  eyes  open  to  our  situation 
at  Court,  and  the  foul  play  we  have  had  offered  to  us  in 
*  GrenvilU  Papers,  i.,  106. 


54  Willimn  Pitt,  [1754- 

the  Closet  :  to  wait  the  working  of  all  these  things  in 
offices,  the  best  we  can  have,  but  in  offices."  * 

In  London,  according  to  Horace  Walpole,  Lyt- 
tleton  acted  as  factor  for  the  Grenvilles.  "  Unau- 
thorised, he  answered  for  Pitt's  acquiescence  under 
the  new  plan.  He  obtained  a  great  employment  for 
himself,  overlooked  Lord  Temple,  and  if  he  stipu- 
lated without  commission  for  George  Grenville,  at 
least  it  was  for  a  preferment,  large  beyond  the  lat- 
ter's  most  possible  presumption."  f  The  offices 
given  to  Pitt's  friends  were  :  to  Grenville  the  Treas- 
urership  of  the  Navy,  to  Lyttleton  the  Cofferership 
of  the  Household,  and  to  Legge  the  Chancellorship 
of  the  Exchequer.  Whether  or  not  Lyttleton  an- 
swered for  his  acquiescence,  it  is  certain  that  Pitt 
was  deeply  mortified  by  being  entirely  passed  over  ; 
he  expressed  his  discontent  to  Newcastle  and  Hard- 
wicke,  and  declared  that  he  desired  retirement. 

"  The  weight  of  irremoveable  royal  displeasure  is  a 
load  too  great  to  move  under  ;  it  must  crush  any  man  ; 
it  has  sunk  and  broke  me.  I  succumb  ;  and  wish  for 
nothing  but  a  decent  and  innocent  retreat,  wherein  I 
may  no  longer,  by  continuing  in  the  public  stream  of 
promotion,  for  ever  stick  fast  aground,  and  afford  to 
the  world  the  ridiculous  spectacle  of  being  passed  by 
every  boat  that  navigates  the  same  river.  To  speak 
without  a  figure,  I  will  presume  upon  your  Lordship's 
great  goodness  to  me,  to  tell  my  utmost  wish  :  it  is  that 


*  Grenville  Papers^  i.,  112. 

•j- Walpole's  Memoirs  of  George  II,  ^  i.,  387. 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power.  55 

a  retreat,  not  void  of  advantage,  or  derogatory  to  the 
rank  of  the  office  I  hold,  might,  as  soon  as  practicable, 
be  opened  to  me."  * 

Hardwicke  and  Newcastle  both  write  long  letters  to 
Pitt,  excusing  their  neglect  of  his  promotion — they 
lay  great  stress  on  the  King's  resolution  not  to  ad- 
mit Pitt,  and  intimate  that  if  they  had  persisted  in 
urging  his  claims  the  only  result  would  have  been 
to  throw  the  King  into  the  arms  of  Fox.  *'  I  honour, 
esteem,  and,  if  you  will  allow  me  to  say  so,  most  sin- 
cerely love  you,"  wrote  Newcastle.  *'  The  King  him- 
self, from  his  own  motion  declared  Sir  Thomas  Rob- 
inson Secretary  of  State.  Those  who  are  honoured 
with  your  friendship,  thought  that  the  most  favour- 
able measure  that  could  be  obtained."  f  Pitt  wrote 
again  to  the  leading  Minister,  complaining  of  the 
"  painful  and  too  visible  humiliation  "  to  which  he 
had  been  subjected. 

"  In  my  degraded  situation  in  Parliament  an  active 
part  there  I  am  sure  your  Grace  is  too  equitable  to 
desire  me  to  take  ;  for  otherwise  than  as  an  associate 
and  in  equal  rank  with  those  charged  with  Government 
there  I  never  can  take  such  a  part.  .  .  .  Indeed,  my 
Lord,  the  Inside  of  the  House  must  be  considered  in 
other  respects  besides  merely  numbers,  or  the  Reins  of 
Government  will  soon  be  wrested  out  of  any  Minister's 
hands."  X 


*  Chatham  Correspondence,  i.,  105. 

f  Ibid.,  i.,  96. 

%  British  Museum,  Add.  MSS.  32734,  f.  322. 


56  William  Pitt  [1754- 

Lyttleton  has  left  us  his  view  of  these  negotiations 
in  his  Observations  on  Mr.  Pitfs  Letters  of  iyS4-y^  ^^^ 
he  accepts  entirely  the  views  of  Newcastle  and  Hard- 
wicke  :  ''  Lord  Hardwicke,  to  keep  down  Fox,  his 
personal  enemy,  most  ardently  desired  the  advance- 
ment of  Pitt,  as  soon  as  the  obstacles  in  the  closet 
could  be  removed  :  but  that  was  itself  a  work  of 
much  more  difficulty  than  Pitt's  impatience  would 
believe.  An  attempt  to  force  the  King  to  it  as  early 
as  he  wished,  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Pelham,  would 
have  had  no  effect  (as  I  have  frequently  heard  Lord 
Hardwicke  say),  but  to  drive  his  Majesty  into  the 
arms  of  Fox,  who,  with  a  very  considerable  number 
of  the  Whigs,  was  ready  to  support  him  against  such 
a  compulsion,  and  would  probably  have  made  his 
party  good ;  Mr.  Pitt's  popularity  not  being  yet 
acquired."  Lyttleton's  optimist  view  was  doubtless 
affected  by  the  fact  that  he  had  himself  obtained 
place,  and  though  there  was  considerable  force  in  the 
plea  that  to  coerce  the  King  would  drive  him  to  Fox, 
and  though  Hardwicke  was  undoubtedly  Fox's  en- 
emy, notwithstanding  their  formal  reconciliation, 
and  therefore  Pitt's  ally,  yet  it  is  difificult  to  believe 
that  Newcastle  ever  intended  to  give  the  leadership 
of  the  Commons  to  a  man  of  Pitt's  known  independ- 
ence. The  Minister  had  not  hesitated  by  a  treach- 
erous offer  to  affront  Fox,  with  his  powerful  influence 
among  the  Whigs ;  so  much  he  had  risked  in  order 
to  monopolise  power,  and  he  would  hardly  jeopardise 
that  power  by  promoting  a  man  whose  connections 
had  been  already  gratified,  whose  claims  were  merely 

*  Phillimore's  Lyttleton,  i.,  487, 


1767]  Pitt  Attains  Power,  57 

those  of  ability  and  character^__  It  is  a  curious  fact 
thafaf  the  general  election  Pitt  was  elected  for 
Aldborough,  one  of  the  Pelham  boroughs,  and  sat 
for  that  place  even  while  he  led  the  opposition  to 
Newcastle's  administration  ;  he  has  been  greatly 
blamed  for  this  conduct,  but  the  blunders  of  the 
Government  were  so  serious  that  Pitt  not  unnatur- 
ally thought  more  of  exposing  those  disastrous  mis- 
takes than  of  regulating  his  conduct  according  to  the 
exact  ethical  code  of  rotten  boroughs.  A  man  of 
Pitt's  position  would  not  be  expected  to  forfeit  his 
private  judgment  because  he  accepted  the  Premier's 
nomination  ;  the  relationship  of  servant  to  patron 
was  not  possible  between  Pitt  and  Newcastle. 

Pitt's  gout,  and  the  injury  to  his  pride,  kept  him 
out  of  town  for  most  of  this  spring  and  summer  ;  his 
letters  to  Temple  are  couched  in  the  vein  of  excess- 
ive humility  which  he  was  fond  of  working,  and 
display  also  that  love  for  rural  exile  which  so  often 
animates  the  unoccupied  statesman.  **  I  can  hear 
unmoved  of  Parliament's  assembling,  and  Speaker's 
chusing.  ...  I  live  the  vernal  day  on  verdant 
hills,  or  sequestered  valleys  —  I  envy  not  the  dust 
of  Kensington  Causey,  or  the  verdure  of  Lincoln's 
Inn  Fields."  As  for  politics,  he  would  not  go  over 
to  the  Trojans  to  be  revenged  :  "  For  my  own  poor 
self,  I  sincerely  wish  his  Majesty's  affairs  in  Parliament 
all  success  in  the  hands  to  which  they  are  committed. 
I  esteem  and  love  Legge.  Sir  Thomas  Robinson  is 
a  very  worthy  gentleman."  This  summer  of  exile 
and  humility  was  memorable  in  the  private  life  of 
Pitt  by  reason  of  his  engagement  and  marriage  to 


58  William  Pitt. 


[1754- 


-\ 


Lady  Hester,  sister  of  the  Grenvilles.  "  I  am  the 
happiest  man  alive,"  wrote  Pitt  to  his  cousin,  ''  and 
you  will  believe  me  when  I  tell  you  Lady  Hester 
Grenville  has  consented  to  make  me  so.  You  know 
how  dear  her  brothers  are  to  me."  "^ 

Pitt's  honeymoon  was  a  very  brief  one  ;  he  was  mar- 
ried on  November  6th,  and  on  November  14th  he  was 
in  his  place,  on  the  first  day  of  the  new  session.  His 
relations  with  Fox  had  changed  as  a  result  of  the 
treatment  they  had  both  received  from  Newcastle ; 
although  no  formal  union  was  settled  between  them, 
they  were  prepared  to  act  together  in  skirmishes 
against  Sir  Thomas  Robinson,  and  they  both  felt  that 
Newcastle's  project  of  leaving  the  House  of  Commons 
without  any  substantial  ministerial  leader  was  one 
which  must  be  defeated.  It  involved  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  executive  Government  from  its  depend- 
ence upon  the  representative  chamber,  and,  as  Fox 
said,  '*  taking  all  from  the  House  of  Commons  was 
not  the  way  to  preserve  Whig  liberty."  Fox  prob- 
ably agreed  with  Pitt's  famous  remark :  "•  Sir 
Thomas  Robinson  lead  us  ! — the  Duke  might  as  well 
send  his  jackboot  to  lead  us  !  "  All  the  best  speakers 
in  the  House  were  in  some  employment,  and  the 
Government  majority  was  oppressively  large,  but  the 
session  proved  an  exceedingly  lively  one,  full  of 
personal  heats  and  animosities.  At  its  commence- 
ment Pitt  carried  a  useful  measure  which  benefited 
the  Chelsea  Pensioners  by  providing  that  half  their 


"^Memorials  of  Admiral  Gambler,  i.,  74.  Legge  said  jestingly, 
"  I  think  the  breed  will  be  a  good  one,  and  can't  fail  to  speak  as  soon 
as  they  are  born." 


1757] 


Pitt  Attains  Power.  59 


annuity  should  be  advanced  to  them  when  they  were 
admitted  ;  previously  they  had  received  no  payment 
till  the  end  of  their  first  year,  and  as  a  result  had 
been  much  preyed  upon  by  usurers,  who  lent  them 
money  at  exorbitant  rates. 

When  the  session  was  a  fortnight  old,  Pitt  startled 
the  House  by  a  furious  outburst  directed  against  the 
Premier.  An  election  petition  was  being  discussed, 
and  the  stories  of  bribery  were  creating  immense 
merriment  among  members.  Pitt  was  sitting  in  the 
gallery  listening  to  the  discussion,  when  suddenly 
he  started  up,  came  down  to  the  floor  of  the  House, 

"  and  with  all  his  former  fire  said,  he  had  asked  what 
occasioned  such  an  uproar  ;  lamented  to  hear  a  laugh  on 
such  a  subject  as  bribery  !  Did  we  try  within  the  House 
to  diminish  our  own  dignity,  when  such  attacks  were 
made  upon  it  from  without  ?  It  was  almost  lost  !  It 
wanted  support  !  It  had  long  been  vanishing  !  Scarce 
possible  to  recover  it  !  He  hoped  the  Speaker  would  ex- 
tend a  saving  hand  to  raise  it :  he  could  only  restore  it — 
yet  scarce  he  !  He  called  on  all  to  assist  or  else  we 
should  only  sit  to  register  the  arbitrary  edicts  of  one  too 
powerful  a  subject  !  "  * 

The  effect  of  this  speech  was  astonishing — "  this 
thunderbolt,  thrown  in  a  sky  so  long  serene,  con- 
founded the  audience,"  says  Horace  Walpole,  who 
was  present.  Fox  is  even  more  emphatic ;  he  calls 
it  the  finest  speech  that  ever  Pitt  spoke  ;  **  displeased 
as  well  as  pleased,  allow  it  to  be  the  finest  speech 
that  was  ever  made ;  and  it  was  observed  that  by  his 

*  Memoirs  of  George  II.,  i.,  408. 


6o  William  Pitt. 


[1754- 


first  two  periods  he  brought  the  House  to  a  silence 
and  attention  that  you  might  have  heard  a  pin  drop."* 
Later  on  the  same  day  on  another  election  petition, 
Sir  Thomas  Robinson  made  the  mistake  of  declaring 
that  a  certain  cause  was  a  bad  one  before  it  had 
been  heard  ;  Pitt  immediately  rose  and  denounced 
the  unhappy  diplomatist  fiercely,  Sir  Thomas  reply- 
ing "  with  pomp,  confusion,  and  warmth."  Pitt  re- 
plied with  cool  art,  showing  that  he  meant  the 
attack  for  Newcastle,  and,  in  his  manner  of  sublime 
condescension,  added  that  he  thotight  Sir  Thomas 
Robinson  as  able  as  any  man  that  had  of  late  years 
filled  that  office,  or  was  likely  to  fill  it.  Fox  then 
took  up  the  charge. 

''  I  excused  Sir  Thomas's  irregular  and  blameable  ex- 
pression (he  writes)  by  his  twenty  years'  residence 
abroad,  where  he  had  done  honour  to  himself  and  to  his 
country,  and  which  easily  accounts  for  his  total  in- 
experience in  the  matters  now  before  us  :  he  did  not 
like  it."t 

Horace  Walpole,  commenting  on  this  scene,  says 
that  it  was  plain  that  Pitt  and  Fox  were  impatient 
of  any  superior  ;  and  as  plain,  by  the  complexion  and 
murmurs  of  the  House  in  support  of  Sir  Thomas 
Robinson,  that  the  inclinations  of  the  members 
favoured  neither  of  them.  The  House  of  Commons 
at  all  periods  of  its  history  has  extended  a  sympa- 
thetic tolerance  towards  mediocrity  in  high  places. 


*  Waldegrave's  Memoir^  App. 

f  Fox  to  Hartington,  November  26,  1754,  Waldegrave's  J/<?/«^?>, 
App. 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power,  61 

In  another  letter"^  Fox  gives  an  account  of  a 
famous  attack  by  Pitt  on  Murray,  an  attack  made  by 
the  pointed  recital  of  an  old  story  about  seditious 
songs  and  toasts  at  Oxford,  in  which  Murray  was 
said  to  have  been  concerned. 

"  I  sate  next  Murray,  who  suffered  for  an  hour.  .  .  . 
It  is  the  universal  opinion  that  business  cannot  go  on  as 
things  now  are,  and  that  offers  will  be  made  to  Pitt  or 
me.  On  this  subject,  Pitt  was  with  me  two  hours 
yesterday  morning.  A  difficult  conversation  :  I  managed 
it,  as  I  think,  as  well  as  such  a  conversation  could  be 
managed.  .  .  .  The  result  of  this  is,  that  I  will  be 
as  prudent  as  I  can  be  with  honour." 

Both  Fox  and  Pitt  were  anxious  to  go  as  far  as 
they  dared  against  Newcastle,  but  Fox  was  more  re- 
strained than  Pitt,  partly  because  he  was  more  hope- 
ful of  immediate  concessions,  and  partly  because  he 
was  anxious  to  stand  well  with  the  Whigs,  who  still 
regarded  Newcastle  with  honour.  Pitt  was  left  almost 
alone  in  the  Commons,  as  George  Grenville  for  the  mo- 
ment and  Lyttleton  more  permanently,  were  satisfied 
by  their  promotion,  and  the  intemperate  Temple  was 
his  only  adviser.  The  historic  friendship  with  Lyttle- 
ton came  to  an  end  over  some  hasty  negotiations  f 
into  which  Lyttleton  entered  between  Bedford  and 
Newcastle.  ,  Lyttleton  strongly  disapproved  of  Pitt's 
tactics ;  he  writes,  "  It  was  quite  impossible  for  me 
to  join  in  an  opposition,  which,  at  the  .beginning  of 
it,  in  the  year  1754,  and  through  the  ensuing  session 

*  Fox  to  Hartington,  November  28,  1754,  Ibid, 
\  Walpole's  Memoirs  of  George  II.,  i.,  414. 


62  William  Pitt. 


[1754- 


of  1755,  had  not  even  the  pretence  of  any  pubHc 
cause,  but  was  purely  personal  against  the  Duke  of 
Newcastle."  "^  The  Cofferer  did  not  perceive  that 
there  was  public  cause  enough  in  any  attempt  to  curb 
the  power  of  Newcastle  over  the  nation's  destiny ; 
and,  apart  from  that  consideration,  it  was  in  the 
nature  of  things  that  two  such  men  as  Pitt  and  Fox 
could  not  tamely  acquiesce  in  their  own  humiliation. 
Pitt  was  open  enough  in  his  haughty  declaration  to 
Newcastle.  "  Fewer  words,  my  Lord,  if  you  please, 
for  your  words  have  long  lost  all  weight  with  me." 
It  has  been  urged  by  a  great  historian  that  the 
conduct  of  Pitt  at  this  time  was  an  outrageous  vi- 
olation of  the  most  ordinary  rules  of  political  loyalty 
and  honour,  and  that  the  conduct  of  a  subordinate 
Minister  who,  while  retaining  ofifice,  makes  it  his 
main  object  to  discredit  his  official  superiors,  cannot 
be  justified.  "  Pitt  adopted  this  course,"  says  Mr. 
Lecky,  "  through  the  mere  spite  of  a  disappointed 
place-hunter,  and  his  hostility  was  directed  against 
the  statesman  to  whom,  more  than  to  any  other 
single  politician,  he  owed  the  success  he  had  hitherto 
achieved."  This  judgment  appears  unduly  severe. 
Pitt's  obligations  to  Newcastle  were  more  apparent 
than  real:  the  resignations  of  1746,  on  which  Mr. 
Lecky  lays  great  stress,  were  undertaken  in  order  to 
crush  Carteret's  secret  influence,  rather  than  to  help 
Pitt,  and  the  services  rendered  by  Pitt  since  that  day 
in  the  House  had  been  ample  payment  to  the  Pel- 
hams;  the  promise  which  both  the  brothers  had 
given  that  they  would  plead  for  Pitt  with  the  King, 


*  Phillimore's  Lyttleton,  i.,  478. 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power.  63 

had,  in  the  opinion  of  a  shrewd  and  well-informed 
contemporary,*  never  been  kept,  and,  whether  ob- 
served or  not,  had  been  of  no  value  ;  while  Newcastle 
had  certainly  acted  in  a  manner  wounding  to.  the 
pride  of  Pitt  by  setting  him  on  one  side  in  favour  of 
an  unknown  nonentity.  If  Pitt  had  conducted  a 
covert  intrigue  against  his  nominal  chief,  he  would 
have  been  open  to  the  charge  of  dishonour,  but  was 
it  dishonourable  to  challenge  dismissal  by  open 
mutiny  ?  Pitt  entered  upon  an  open  trial  of  courage 
and  strength  with  the  old  Minister,  a  trial  it  was 
necessary  to  go  through  if  he  was  ever  to  emerge  from 
the  rank  of  subordinates  and  deal  with  Newcastle  as 
equal  with  equal.  The  main  motive  of  his  conduct 
was  ambition,  but  there  was  another  serious  consid- 
eration, and  the  best  defence  for  both  Pitt  and  Fox 
was  that  they  were  entitled  to  prove  the  impossibility 
of  Newcastle's  plan  of  governing  without  any  lead- 
ing Minister  in  the  House  of  Commons.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  if  that  scheme  of  government  had  been 
successfully  carried  out,  the  representative  chamber 
would  have  lost  weight,  and  the  balance  of  the  Con- 
stitution would  have  been  altered.  Newcastle's 
anxious  jealousy  feared  any  rival ;  he  knew  that  the 
leader  of  the  Commons  must  divide  his  authority, 
and  he  seriously  conceived  the  plan  of  leaving  the 
House  without  any  leading  Minister  at  all. 

Newcastle  was  pitiably  distressed  by  the  mutinous 
attack'  in  the  Commons ;  if  he  had  possessed  the 
courage  of  any  ordinary  man  he  would  have  ac- 
cepted Pitt's  challenge  and  dismissed  him  from  office, 

*  Horace  Walpole. 


64  William  Pitt,  [1754- 

but  this  course  he  dared  not  take,  though  prudence 
as  well  as  self-respect  counselled  it.  Instead,  he  en- 
deavoured  to  win  over  Fox,  who  had  favour  with 
the  King  through  Cumberland,  by  offering  him  a 
place  in  the  Cabinet.  After  much  hesitation,  Fox 
accepted  the  offer,  in  January,  1755.  He  appears  to 
have  kept  Pitt  informed  of  the  progress  of  the  ne- 
gotiations, and  to  have  been  honestly  unwilling  to 
desert  Pitt's  interest  entirely,  as  he  at  first  stipulated 
that  he  should  not  be  expected  to  oppose  Pitt,  and 
declared  that  he  would  not  accept  the  latter's  place 
if  Newcastle  dismissed  Pitt.  But  his  fidelity  to  his 
temporary  friend  was  not  proof  against  temptation, 
and  Fox,  on  finding  that  the  King  really  disliked 
Pitt,  privately  forswore  all  connection  with  him,  a 
vow  which  was  quickly  reported  to  Pitt,  who  was 
deeply  aggrieved,  though  he  had  disliked  the  Idea 
of  Fox  negotiating  for  him  and  preferred  to  talk  for 
himself.  In  May,  the  two  men  met  accidentally  at 
Lord  Hillsborough's,  and  Pitt  declared  with  some 
heat  that  the  ground  was  altered  ;  that  he  would  be 
second  to  no  man  ;  that  to  accept  the  seals  from  Fox 
would  be  owning  an  obligation  and  superiority 
which  he  could  never  acknowledge  —  he  would  owe 
nothing  but  to  himself.^  Newcastle  had  succeeded 
in  keeping  the  two  strong  men  separate  from  one 
another. 

While  these  personal  contests  were  proceeding, 
the  relations  between  England  and  France  were  be- 
coming more  and  more  strained.  The  inevitable 
struggle  for  supremacy  in  India  and  America  had 

*  Melcombe's  Diary,  p.  284. 


1767]  Pitt  Attains  Power.  65 

been  interrupted  by  the  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle ; 
it  was  to  be  fought  out,  with  the  issues  more  clearly 
realised,  in  the  Seven  Years'  War.  In  India,  the 
year  1754  marked  an  era;  by  the  incredible  folly  of 
the  French  authorities,  Dupleix,  who  had  suffered 
serious  reverses  but  had  made  an  empire,  was  re- 
called in  disgrace,  and  from  the  day  of  his  recall 
the  French  influence  in  India  steadily  waned.  For 
England,  on  the  other  hand,  the  heaven-born  gen- 
ius of  Clive  was  working  miracles,  and  the  English 
sphere  of  power  had  been  greatly  extended  in  1753 
and  1754.  It  was  not,  however,  by  their  rivalry  in 
India  that  England  and  France  were  to  be  forced 
into  war,  as  the  French  King  and  Ministers  had  no 
conception  of  the  great  empire  which  they  might 
found  in  the  East,  and  were  sluggishly  indifferent  to 
the  national  interests  in  that  region.  In  North 
America  the  French  dominions  were  thought  more 
important,  and  more  worthy  of  sacrifice  and  effort, 
but  the  paramount  desire  of  Louis  XV.  was  to  avoid 
war.  Yet,  if  ever  or  in  any  region  war  was  inevit- 
able, it  was  inevitable  at  this  time  in  North  Amer- 
ica, since  the  questions  at  issue  could  only  be  decided 
by  force.  The  French  and  English  races  were  bit- 
terly hostile,  the  men  of  each  race  were  hardy,  val- 
iant, and  determined  to  expand  their  limits,  while 
territorial  boundaries  were  disputed  and  the  princi- 
ples on  which  the  respective  claims  were  based  were 
incompatible  and  admitted  of  no  common  ground 
for  discussion. 

France  possessed  great  interests  in  America  and 
the  West  Indies ;    in  the   eighteenth   century    her 


\^^  N'55   u   .  William  Pitt.  [1754- 

settlements  progressed,  though  not  so  rapidly  as  the 
British  colonies,  and  the  population  of  Canada  rose 
from  twenty-five  thousand  in  1721  to  fifty-five  thou- 
sand in  1754.  The  total  population  of  Canada, 
Louisiana,  and  Acadie  was  about  eighty  thousand, 
while  the  English  in  America  numbered  one  million 
one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand. 

The  French  positions  were  more  favourable  than 
those  of  the  E'ligliiih :  Llie  LW'5^grSr"rivers*"'6'f  the 
cohtiflfittt  were  Commanded  by  them,  while  their 
rivals  seemed  shut  off  from  the  interior.  The  coast- 
line on  the  Atlantic  was  occupied  by  the  thirteen 
British  colonies,  which  lay  between  the  ocean  and 
the  Alleghanies.  West  of  the  Alleghanies,  in  the 
lands  occupied  by  Indians,  and  watered  by  the  great 
rivers,  lay  the  disputed  territory.  The  French  claim, 
stated  at  its  highest,  would  have  confined  the  Eng- 
lish rigidly  to  their  coast  settlements  ;  the  English 
would  have  reduced  Canada  to  the  present  province 
of  Quebec.  Another  dispute  concerned  the  bound- 
aries of  Acadie  or  Nova  Scotia,  which  had  been  sur- 
rendered to  England  by  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht. 
During  the  years  preceding  the  Seven  Years'  War 
the  colonists  of  the  two  countries  were  occupied  in 
strengthening  themselves  for  the  contest  which  they 
regarded  as  certain.  In  these  preparations,  the 
French  made  greater  advances  than  their  rivals,  for, 
in  addition  to  their  superiority  in  position,  they 
enjoyed  the  advantage  of  centralised  government. 
The  Governor  of  Canada  was  supreme,  while  the 
thirteen  British  colonies  were  divided  in  interest  and 
paralysed  in  action  by  the  constant  disputes  between 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power.  67 

their  Assemblies  and  Governors:  But  the  half-feudal 
government  which  gave  to  the. French  their  military 
advantages  was  the  root  cause  of  their  ultimate  de- 
feat. Canada  was  ruled  on  the  principles  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  her  sons  displayed  the  virtues  of 
loyalty  and  devotion  which  spring  from  those  prin- 
ciples, but  she  lacked  the  free  and  unhampered  spirit 
which  was  the  secret  of  the  constant  and  increasing 
expansion  of  the  English.  The  war  in  the  Old 
World  was  described  as  a  struggle  between  Catholic- 
ism and  Protestantism,  and  was  in  reality  a  struggle 
between  modern  and  ancient  ideas ;  but  in  America, 
the  French  Canadians  were  far  more  truly  fighting 
for  their  faith  than  the  European  troops  of  Louis  or 
Maria  Theresa.  The  colony  had  been  kept  unstained 
by  the  presence  of  any  heretic,  and  the  restrictive 
system  involved  in  such  a  policy  had  been  the  main 
reason  why  Canada  had  not  been  more  rapidly  pop- 
ulated and  developed.  The  Huguenots,  the  finest 
stock  in  France,  had  been  prevented  from  emigrat- 
ing there.  Louis  XIV.  said  that  he  had  not  ex- 
pelled heretics  from  France  in  order  that  they  might 
form  a  republic  in  America.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  American  plantations  of  England  enjoyed  a 
greater  freedom  m  religion,  politics,  and  commerce 
than  those  of' any  other  European  Power.  The 
French  built  several  torts  on  what  was  claimed  as 
English  territory,  notably  Fort  Duquesne,  where 
Pittsburcr  now  stands.  Their  intention  to  restrict 
the  English  to  the  seaboard  was  clear. 

In  January,  1755,  two  regiments  embarked  at  Cork 
for  the  American  service,  under  the    command  of 


68  William  Pitt.  L1754- 

Braddock.  On  May  3d,  a  great  French  expedition 
sailed  forQuebec  from  Brest ;  eighteen  ships  of  the  Hne 
under  De  La  Motte  carried  three  thousand  soldiers 
under  the  command  of  Dieskau.  The  new  Canadian 
Governor,  the  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil,  also  sailed  with 
the  expedition.  The  English  Government  resolved 
to  intercept  this  fleet,  though  England  and  France 
were  still  at  peace.  Boscawen's  fleet  sent  on  this  mis- 
sion captured  two  ships,  the  Alcide  and  the  Lys,  and 
when  this  news  reached  Paris  the  French  ambassa- 
dor in  London  was  at  once  recalled.  The  bulk  of 
the  French  reinforcements  reached  Canada,  but  an 
even  worse  blow  was  to  fall  on  the  English  cause. 
Braddock's  plan  of  campaign  was  an  ambitious  one, 
and  if  it  could  have  been  successfully  completed 
would  have  effectually  saved  the  colonies  from  fear 
of  French  invasion.  He  himself  with  his  two  re- 
giments was  to  attack  Fort  Duquesne;  Shirley,  with 
two  new  regiments  taken  into  royal  pay,  was  to  pro- 
ceed against  Fort  Niagara,  which  commanded  the 
communication  between  Lake  Erie  and  Lake  On- 
tario ;  William  Johnson,  with  provincial  forces,  was 
to  seize  Crown  Point,  the  French  fortress  defend- 
ing Lake  Champlain,  and  Colonel  Monckton,  with 
another  provincial  force,  was  to  reduce  Fort  Beaus6- 
jour  and  complete  the  subjection  of  Acadie.  This 
comprehensive  campaign  was  to  be  undertaken  while 
France  and  England  were  still  at  peace,  and  the  only 
apology  for  such  action  is  that  the  French  planned 
operations  of  equal  treachery.  Braddock  himself 
failed  altogether  in  his  attack  on  Fort  Duquesne, 
being  defeated  near  the  fort  on  July   3,  175 5-       He 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power.  69 

fought  with  heroic  stubbornness ;  his  men  were  shot 
down  in  hundreds  by  a  concealed  enemy  ;  he  him- 
self had  four  horses  shot  under  liiiTi  before  he  would 
order  a  retreat,  and  at  the  moment  he  gave  the  order 
he  received  a  iflortal  wound.  His  death  redeemed 
the  brutality  and  unintelligence  which,  with  his 
scorn  for  the  colonists  and  their  superior  knowledge 
of  Indian  war,  had  largely  caused  the  disaster. 

The  other  expeditions  organised  during  the  year 
met  with  only  moderate  success.  Shirley  strength- 
ened the  garrison  at  Fort  Oswego,  but  could  not  even 
attack  the  French  in  Fort  Niagara ;  Johnson  made 
a  gallant  defence  of  Fort  George  against  Dieskau, 
but  failed  to  reach  Crown  Point ;  Monckton  reduced 
Fort  Beaus^jour  and  deported  the  French  Acadians, 
an  act  of  necessary  harshness.  The  year's  cam- 
paigning had  been  marked  by  a  great  disaster,  and 
had  made  no  impression  on  the  French  position. 

The  day  before  Boscawen  sailed  in  pursuit  of  the 
French  squadron,  George  II.  had  embarked  at  Har- 
wich for  Hanover ;  the  entreaties  of  Ministers,  the 
critical  condition  of  affairs,  had  failed  to  move  him 
from  his  purpose.  In  his  absence  there  was  great 
distraction  in  the  Council  of  Regency,  who  were 
utterly  perplexed  as  to  whether  they  should  declare 
war  against  France  or  not.  Some  consideration  had 
been  given  to  the  question  of  Continental  alliances, 
and  early  in  1755  an  application  was  made  to  Maria 
Theresa  for  twenty-five  thousand  men  to  aid  in  de- 
fending the  Low  Countries,  in  view  of  the  probable 
French  attack  upon  them.  The  application  had 
been  very  coldly  received.     The  Austrian  Court  had 


70  William  Pitt.  [1754- 

never  forgiven  the  anxiety  of  England  to  secure  the 
friendship  of  Prussia,  and  Kaunitz  informed  the 
Enghsh  Minister  that  Frederick  was  the  great  enemy 
and  the  great  danger  to  his  country,  and  deHcately 
inquired  whether  England  would  be  willing,  in  case 
of  war,  to  act  against  Prussia.  As  Hanover  was 
dangerously  near  to  Frederick,  this  was  exactly  what 
George  wished  to  avoid,  and  the  negotiations  fell  to 
the  ground.  The  English  King  busied  himself  in 
sowing  the  familiar  crop  of  German  subsidies,  and 
a  great  project  was  in  hand  to  secure  the  assistance 
of  Russia,  while  efforts  were  being  made  to  detach 
Frederick  from  France. 

Without  taking  counsel  with  any  English  Minister, 
the  King  signed  a  subsidy  treaty  with  the  Elector  of 
Hesse  ;  the  treaty  was  sent  over  to  Newcastle,  who 
produced  it  at  the  Council,  and  announced  that  the 
King  had  settled  it.  Pitt's  opportunity  had  arrived. 
To  the  astonishment  of  the  Premier,  Legge,  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  acting  on  Pitt's  ad- 
vice, decHned  to  sign  the  Treasury  warrant  until  the 
treaty  had  been  approved  by  Parliament.  The  sub- 
sidies were  very  unpopular  with  all  politicians,  and 
Newcastle  was  greatly  alarmed  at  the  prospect  of 
their  discussion  in  the  Commons  ;  he  felt  the  ne- 
cessity of  securing  an  advocate,  and  renewed  offers 
were  made  to  Pitt.  Hardwicke  and  Newcastle  both 
had  interviews  with  their  colleague,  and  he  was  of- 
fered a  seat  in  the  Cabinet,  friendly  treatment  by 
the  King,  and  the  seals  as  Secretary  of  State  at  the 
earliest  opportunity,  on  condition  that  he  would  de- 
fend the  subsidies.     Pitt,  however,  after  some  con- 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power.  71 

sideration,  declined  to  come  in.  Hardwicke  gives 
an  account  to  Newcastle  of  the  interview. 

"  I  showed  him  how  we  had  jointly  laboured  in  his  cause. 
I  thought  we  had  gained  a  good  deal  of  ground.  .  .  . 
He  did  not  wish  it  done  (Secretary  of  State)  without  the 
King's  own  inclination  to  it  ;  desired  a  further  mark  of 
favour  and  confidence  which  must  be  extended  to  his 
friends.  The  maritime  and  American  war  he  came 
roundly  into  ;  subsidiary  treaties  would  not  go  down  ; 
they  were  a  connection  and  a  chain,  and  would  end  in  a 
general  plan  for  the  Continent." 

It  is  curious  to  read  Hardwicke's  account  of  the 
strictly  economical  views  of  Pitt  at  this  time.*  In 
his  interview  with  Newcastle,  Pitt  agreed  to  support 
the  Hessian  treaty  if  the  King's  honour  was  spe- 
cially concerned.  "  Well,  and  the  Russian  subsidy  ?  " 
said  the  Duke.  *'  No,  no,"  rejoined  Pitt,  hastily,  "  not 
a  system  of  subsidies."  He  plainly  told  the  Premier 
that  his  system  of  carrying  on  business  in  the  House 
would  not  do.  **  There  must  be  men  of  efficiency 
and  authority  in  the  House,  a  Secretary  and  a  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer  at  least,  who  should  have 
access  to  the  Crown,  habitual,  frequent,  familiar  ac- 
cess I  mean,  that  they  may  tell  their  own  story,  to 
do  themselves  and  their  friends  justice,  and  not  be 
the  victims  of  a  whisper."  As  Pitt  declined  to  give 
way  on  the  point  of  subsidies,  which  involved  in  all 
probability  the  conduct  of  the  war  on  the  old  haphaz- 
ard, inefficient  system  which  had  made  the  Austrian 


Harris's  Hardwicke,  iii.,  31-34. 


72  William  Pitt,  [1754- 

war  so  barren  of  result,  the  negotiation  fell  through. 

Fox  agreed  to  become  Secretary  of  State  and  leader 

A  of  the  House  ;  although  he  had  privately  expressed 

f^  his  disapproval  of  the  subsidies,  he  was  not  the  man 

^..r.        to  place  an  extravagant  value  on  principle  when  it 

vX>-^  ^  was  an  obstacle  to  power.     He  became  the  colleague 

t^v^         of  Newcastle,  but  he  immediately  began  to  strengthen 

Vv^-A^  Liri  all  possible  ways  his  own  power  at  Court  and  in 

^    rj^  the  Cabinet.      When  Chesterfield  heard  of   his  ap- 

rT      pointment,  he  said  that  Newcastle  had  turned  out 

'^^^  everybody  else,  and  now  had  turned  out  himself. 

The  King  had  further  embarrassed  his  Ministers 
by  negotiating,  when  in  Hanover,  a  marriage  for  the 
Prince  of  Wales  with  a  daughter  of  the  Duchess  of 
Brunswick;  this  plan  was  so  disHked  by  the  Princess 
Dowager,,  who  feared  that  she  would  lose  all  influ- 
ence over  her  son,  that  she  went  into  open  opposi- 
tion. Pitt  was  taken  into  the  greatest  favour,  a 
favour  heightened  by  the  fact  that  he  had  defin- 
itely broken  with  Fox,  and  therefore  with  Cum- 
berland. This  opposition  of  the  successor  and  his 
mother  added  greatly  to  the  excitement  when  the 
House  met  on  November  13, 1755  ;  a  formidable  party, 
with  a  great  orator  at  its  head,  backed  by  the  grow- 
ing discontent  of  the  people,  who  thoroughly  ap- 
proved the  war  and  feared  that  the  present  Cabinet 
would  grievously  mismanage  it, — such  a  party  at  so 
great  a  crisis  in  affairs  excited  animation  in  the 
House,  which  for  nearly  ten  years  had  been  accus- 
tomed only  to  languid  discussions  and  indifferent 
concerns.  The  debate  on  the  Address  lasted  from  two 
in  the  afternoon  till  five  in  the  morning,  was  marked 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power.  73 

by  a  great  display  of  oratory  on  both  sides,  and 
ranged  chiefly  round  the  subsidies.  Pitt  rose  to 
speak  after  a  number  of  inferior  orators.  ''  How  his 
eloquence,"  says  Horace  Walpole,  *'  like  a  torrent 
long  obstructed  burst  forth  with  more  commanding 
impetuosity  !  He  and  Legge  opened  their  new  op- 
position in  the  very  spirit  of  their  different  characters. 
The  one  humble,  artful,  affecting  moderation,  gliding 
to  revenge  ;  the  other  haughty,  defiant,  and  conscious 
of  injury  and  supreme  abilities."  "^  The  members  of 
the  House  for  the  most  part  had  never  heard  Pitt  in 
one  of  his  great  sustained  efforts,  and  on  that  night 
the  orator,  rising  to  the  full  height  of  his  great 
powers,  mastered  and  possessed  an  audience  which 
was  critical  and  hostile  to  himself.  No  verbal  report 
of  his  speech  remains,  and  such  report  if  it  existed 
would  give  us  no  better  impression  of  Pitt's  oratory 
than  a  photograph  gives  of  a  great  picture  :  the 
warmth  and  colour  would  be  gone ;  phrases  that 
seem  to  the  reader  high-pitched,  images  and  parallels 
that  appear  overstrained  were  made  vivid,  trenchant, 
and  convincing  by  the  passion  of  the  speaker.  The 
orator's  art,  like  that  of  the  actor,  is  perfect  only  at 
the  moment  of  its  birth. 

There  are  certain  detached  passages  spoken  by 
Pitt  in  this  debate  which  are  given  with  some  ful- 
ness by  Horace  Walpole,  one  of  them  being,  per- 
haps, the  most  famous  of  all  Pitt's  utterances, —  the 
comparison  of  the  new  coalition  between  Fox  and 
Newcastle  with  the  junction  of  the  Rhine  and  the 


*  Walpole's  Memoirs  of  George  II,,  ii.,  55. 


74  William  Pitt.  [1754- 

Saone.      The    introduction    of    this   comparison   is 
rarely  quoted.  * 

"  I,  who  am  at  a  distance  from  that  sanctum  sanctorum, 
whither  the  priest  goes  for  inspiration,  I  who  travel 
through  a  desert,  and  am  overwhelmed  with  mountains  of 
obscurity,  cannot  so  easily  catch  a  gleam  to  direct  me  to 
the  beauties  of  these  negotiations  —  but  there  are  parts 
of  this  that  do  not  seem  to  come  from  the  same  quarter 
with  the  rest — I  cannot  unravel  this  mystery — yes,"  cried 
he,  clapping  his  hand  suddenly  to  his  forehead, ''  I  too 
am  inspired  now  !  It  strikes  me  !  I  remember  to  have 
been  carried  to  see  the  conflux  of  the  Rhine  and  the 
Saone  ;  the  one  a  gentle,  feeble,  languid  stream,  and 
though  languid  of  no  depth  ;  the  other,  a  boisterous  and 
impetuous  torrent  ;  but  different  as  they  are  they  meet 
at  last  ;  and  long  may  they  continue  united,  to  the 
comfort  of  each  other,  and  to  the  glory,  honour,  and 
security  of  this  nation  !  " 

So  far  as  Pitt,  in  this  speech,  was  concerned  with 
himself  and  his  own  policy,  he  declared  his  gratitude 
to  the  King  for  the  late  condescending  goodness  and 
gracious  opening,  and  his  pity  for  Fox  ;  and  through- 
out insisted  that  England  must  pursue  the  maritime 
and  American  war.  "  Our  navy  procured  the  restora- 
tion of  the  barrier  and  Flanders  in  the  last  war,  by 
making  us  masters  of  Cape  Breton.  After  that  war, 
with  even  that  indemnification  in  our  hands,  we  were 
forced  to  rejoice  at  a  bad  peace ;  and  bad  as  it  was, 
have   suffered   infractions  of  it  (in  America)   every 


♦Walpole's  Memoirs  of  George  II.,  ii.,  55-^0. 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power,  75 

year ;  till  the  Ministers  would  have  been  stoned  as 
they  went  along  the  streets,  if  they  had  not  at  last 
shown  resentment."  The  subsidy  treaties  he  said 
would  only  provoke  Prussia,  and  light  up  a  general 
war ;  subsidies  annihilated  teh  millions  in  the  last 
war,  while  our  navy  brought  in  twelve  millions. 
Murray  had  drawn  a  pathetic  picture  of  the  King  in 
the  evening  of  his  life.  Pitt  too  could  draw  such  a 
picture.  "  I  have  figured  him  far  from  an  honest 
Council  all  the  summer,  surrounded  by  affrighted 
Hanoverians,  and  with  no  advocate  for  England  near 
him."  The  situation  of  the  King's  people  was  also 
pathetic  and  distressed  :  ''  within  two  years  his  Maj- 
esty will  not  be  able  to  sleep  in  St.  James's  for  the 
cries  of  a  bankrupt  people !  " 

The  morning  following  this  debate,  Fox  received 
the  seals  as  Secretary  of  State,  and  five  days  after- 
wards Pitt,  Legge,  and  George  Grenville  were  dis- 
missed. Pitt's  old  friend.  Sir  George  Lyttleton, 
became  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  It  was  said 
at  the  time  that  Pitt  retired  with  a  pension  of 
£\QOO  a  year,  but  he  was  offered  no  such  allowance, 
and  probably  would  have  accepted  none  if  offered  ; 
Lord  Temple,  with  characteristic  generosity,  pre- 
vailed on  his  friend  and  brother-in-law  to  accept  that 
sum  as  a  present  from  himself,  until  better  times 
should  arrive.  Certainly  the  Opposition  of  the  Gren- 
villes  under  Pitt,  assisted  by  Legge,  who  had  pre- 
viously been  an  adherent  of  Bedford,  did  their  best 
to  speed  the  coming  of  better  days  ;  they  could  not 
muster  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  on  a 
division,  but  they  displayed  great  capacity,  and  Pitt 


76  William  Pitt.  [1754- 

felt,  as  often  in  his  career  he  felt,  that  the  great  un- 
represented forces  of  the  country  were  at  his  back. 
Fox  sneered  at  his  "  awakening  "  speeches,  but  the 
mission  of  Pitt  was  to  rouse  and  stimulate  a  spirit  in 
the  English  people  that  should  nerve  them  for  the 
opportunity  before  them,  a  spirit  of  pride  and  pas- 
sionate ambition.  He  stood  for  vigorous  and  com- 
prehensive measures,  for  confident  action,  for  faith  in 
England  herself  and  in  the  work  of  Englishmen  who 
were  raising  new  states  in  the  East  and  West ;  the 
system  of  the  Grand  Alliance  was  gone,  but  the 
enemy  of  England  remained,  and  Pitt  wished  to  see 
England,  no  longer  impeded  and  impoverished  by 
the  little  subsidised  states  of  Germany,  trusting  in 
her  proper  force  of  sea-power  and  expanding  the 
territories  of  her  sons  in  the  New  World.  At  this 
moment  the  Prussian  Alliance  was  not  secured — it 
was  so  far  unexpected  that  Russia  was  to  be  heavily 
subsidised  in  order  that  Frederick  might  be  re- 
strained ;  and  the  Hessian  subsidy  meant  that  a 
Continental  war  was  to  be  risked,  and  British  interests 
in  America  jeopardised,  in  order  that  Hanover  might 
be  protected.  Newcastle  was  too  timid  ever  to 
break  boldly  away  from  the  Continental  system,  and 
but  for  the  good  fortune  of  the  Prussian  Alliance, 
and  the  new  spirit  infused  into  English  measures  by 
Pitt,  the  war  with  France  would  have  reproduced  the 
familiar  features  of  the  last  struggle  —  occasional  and 
disconnected  naval  victories  balanced  by  fruitless 
Continental  campaigns.  It  was  against  this  prospect- 
ive policy  that  Pitt  vehemently  appealed  to  the 
English  people  through  the  autumn  of  1755.     As  he 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power,  *]"] 

told  Hardwicke,  he  would  rather  pay  the  King 
five  millions  compensation  at  the  end  of  the  war 
if  Hanover  should  be  occupied  by  the  French, 
than  risk  the  issue,  which  ought  to  be  decided  upon 
the  sea,  by  European  entanglements.  He  would  not 
permit  Hanover  to  be  annexed,  but  he  would  not 
allow  the  central  British  interest  to  be  dominated  by 
the  Electorate. 

The  keynote  of  Pitt's  speeches  through  these 
months  is  struck  in  one  phrase :  "I  want  to  call  this 
country  out  of  that  enervated  state  that  twenty 
thousand  men  from  France  can  shake  it.  The 
maxims  of  our  Government  have  degenerated,  not 
our  natives.  I  wish  to  see  that  breed  restored,  which 
under  our  old  principles  carried  our  glory  so  high." 
On  every  topic  calculated  to  raise  the  national  ardour, 
for  every  measure  increasing  the  means  of  national 
defence,  Pitt's  inspiriting  eloquence  was  heard,  and 
the  call  to  patriotism  mingled  with  scornful  invective 
against  Newcastle.  The  Premier  was  a  fitting  butt 
for  the  ridicule  of  ardent  Opposition  speakers; 
Charles  Townshend's  wit  found  a  happy  phrase 
when  he  inveighed  against  the  Minister's  petulant 
mechanic  activity ;  Pitt  loftily  denounced  his  little 
frivolous  love  of  power,  his  ambition  of  being  the 
only  figure  among  ciphers.  "  To  times  of  relaxation 
should  be  left  that  fondness  for  disposal  of  places ; 
wisdom  should  meet  such  rough  times  as  these." 
When  the  Government,  in  their  navy  estimates, 
moved  for  fifty  thousand  men,  Pitt  regretted  that 
they  had  not  asked  for  more  ;  an  increase  of  fifteen 
thousand  for  the  army,  bringing  the  total  of  men  to 


yS  William  Pitt.  [1754- 


34,263,  was  warmly  supported,  while  in  the  same 
speech  Pitt  declaimed  against  the  folly  of  having 
sent  only  two  miserable  battalions  under  Braddock 
to  America.  An  alarm  is  the  harvest  of  an  eloquent 
politician,  and  Pitt  declared  that  by  alarming  the 
nation  he  would  make  the  danger  reach  the  ears  of 
his  Majesty:  he  began  this  work  by  drawing  "a 
striking  and  masterly  picture  of  a  French  invasion 
reaching  London."  As  the  French  were  ostenta- 
tiously busy  at  this  time  in  preparing  those  trans- 
ports which  have  so  often  excited  the  imagination  of 
the  more  timid  among  English  people,  and  were 
boasting  of  their  proposed  descent  upon  England, 
Pitt's  striking  and  masterly  picture  doubtless  pro- 
duced its  proper  effect. 

The  problem  of  dealing  with  the  danger  of  a 
French  invasion  was  met  in  two  ways  by  politicians ; 
it  is  a  measure  of  the  demoralisation  which  rotted 
the  national  spirit,  that  within  a  generation  of  Marl- 
borough the  Ministers  of  England  invited,  and  the 
people  welcomed,  the  aid  of  Hanoverian  and  Hes- 
sian mercenaries  in  defence  of  their  own  shores.  To 
his  eternal  honour,  Pitt  opposed  this  craven  device, 
declared  that  the  resources  of  the  nation  were  suffi- 
cient, and  proposed  to  utilise  those  resources  more 
effectively  by  training  the  national  militia.  This 
force  had  occasioned  such  dangerous  disputes  be- 
tween Charles  I.  and  his  Parliament  that  men  had 
feared  to  raise  any  question  concerning  it,  while  the 
standing  army,  unpopular  though  it  was  with  the 
nation,  had  steadily  superseded  the  more  constitu- 
tional militia.     The  great  struggle  over  the  principle 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power,  "jc^ 

of  a  standing  army  took  place  after  the  Peace  of 
Ryswick  (1697),  and  ended  in  victory  for  William, 
who  secured  a  body  of  seven  thousand  men  ;  in 
1750,  two  years  after  the  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle, 
the  number  had  risen  to  nearly  nineteen  thousand. 
The  national  militia  was  in  theory  based  upon  com- 
pulsory service,  and  the  Restoration  Parliament  ha3 
technically  reconstituted  it  under  the  supreme  direc- 
tion of  the  Crown  ;  but  from  that  date  to  1757,  Par- 
lianient  passed  no  Act  for  its  regulation,  and  the 
question  was  neglectedo  As  opposed  to  the  stand- 
ing army,  which  retaine^^or  a  century  and  a  half  its 
association  with  the  government  of  Cromwell,  a 
national  militia  was  the  favourite  plan  of  the  Tory 
country  gentlemen,  and  from  time  to  time  Oppost 
tions  had  attempted  to  revive  the  system,  but  never 
with  effect.  The  shameful  expedient  of  hiring  for- 
eign troops  to  undertake  national  defence  naturally 
raised  this  alternative  scheme,  which  was  ardently 
adopted  by  Pitt.  His  scheme  was  unfolded  to  the 
House  in  a  speech  which  delighted  that  eminently 
practical  body  by  its  plain  precision,  masterly  clear- 
ness, memory  for  detail,  and  the  capacity  it  showed 
for  business.  *'  He  had  never  shone  in  that  light 
before,"  says  Horace  Walpole.  The  proposals  were 
to  make  the  militia  a  real  body  of  fi f ty  ocsixty^ 
thousand  men,  consistmg^rntir^  of  infantry,  en- 
listed under  the  compulsory  force  of  the  civil  author- 
ity, a  body  which  should  be  permanently  available 
for  national  defence,  and  for  furnishing  recruits 
who  would  be  trained  men,  for  the  regular  army. 
Pitt  expressly  stated  that  the  militia  was  to  be  only 


8o  William  Pitt. 


[1754- 


an  auxiliary  force,  as  he  desired  to  see  the  standing 
army  maintained  at  a  strength  of  eighteen  thousand 
men.  This  scheme,  he  argued,  was  *'  preferable  to 
waiting  to  see  if  the  wind  Would  blow  you  mercen- 
ary troops "  from  Europe,  and  he  specially  com- 
mended it  to  the  country  gentlemen,  who  were, 
indeed,  much  gratified  by  the  measure.  A  Bill 
embodying  these  principles  was  passed  by  the 
Commons  but  thrown  out  by  the  Lords*.  In  1757, 
Pitt  revived  the  plan. 

The  struggle  for  the  valley  of  the  Ohio  in  Amer- 
ica forced  on  negotiations  in  Europe  which  revolu- 
tionised the  international  relations  of  all  the  great 
States,  dividing  ancient  allies  and  reconciling  inveter- 
ate foes.  The  grand  contest  between  England  and 
France  might  have  been  fought  as  a  naval  duel; 
nothing  in  the  nature  of  the  struggle  demanded  that 
it  should  be  made  a  European  concern.  But  all  the 
eighteenth-century  wars  were  of  double  aspect;  in 
every  case,  the  New  World  struggle  was  accom- 
panied by  hostilities  between  the  Continental  Pow- 
ers ;  this  gave  to  France  double  opportunities  of 
aggression,  but  also  laid  upon  her  resources  a  double 
strain.  The  great  House  of  Bourbon,  rivalled  on 
one  side  by  the  House  of  Hapsburg,  on  the  other 
by  England's  growing  power,  had  struggled  with 
unhesitating  courage  and  pride  to  bear  the  weight 


*The  Militia  Bill  excited  very  protracted  discussions  in  the  Com- 
mons, as  the  details  were  of  interest  to  the  country  gentlemen.  Pitt 
writes  to  his  nephew  : '  "  I  am  well,  but  threatened  with  gout  in  my 
feet,  from  a  parliamentary  debauch,  till  six  in  the  morning,  on  the 
Militia." 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power,  8i 

0. 

of  too  glorious  a  destiny.  Prussia,  under  the  most 
cynical  and  able  of  all  modern  Kings,  was  beginning 
to  move  towards  its  position  of  predominance  in 
Central  Europe.  The  House  of  Hapsburg  was  ruled 
by  a  woman  who  could  never  forget  the  Silesian 
wrong  perpetrated  by  Prussia,  and  after  Aix-la- 
Chapelle  was  served  by  Kaunitz,  a  diplomatist  who 
shared  to  the  full  his  sovereign's  belief  that  Prussia 
must  be  destroyed.  The  immense  Empire  of  the 
North  was  beginning  to  stir  into  life,  to  realise  her 
mighty  strength,  and  to  insist  that  the  gigantic 
Slavonic  armies  should  give  Russia  a  share  in  the 
development  of  Western  civilisation.  The  conti- 
nental convulsions  caused  by  the  growth  of  powerful 
nations  and  by  the  clashing  of  dynastic  ambitions 
were  felt  by  England  because  of  her  connection  with 
Hanover,  and  by  the  same  accident  they  combined 
with  that  colonial  and  naval  rivalry  which  w^as  of 
so  much  larger  importance  to  the  Island  Kingdom, 
though  it  occupied  so  much  less  of  her  statesmens' 
thought,  than  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe. 

Tiie  American  difficulty  was  the  signal  for  univer- 
sal preparation.  The  English  Ministers  turned,  as  we 
have  seen,  to  Austria,  Russia,  Holland,  and  the  minor 
German  Powers.  It  soon  became  evident  to  Hol- 
derness,  who  conducted  the  English  negotiation, 
that  the  old  system  would  not  be  revived.  A  Con- 
ference at  The  Hague  in  May,  1755,  showed  that  the 
chief  party  among  the  Dutch  was  bent  on  neutrality, 
while  the  Ministers  at  Vienna  showed  very  little  hos- 
tility to  France.  Keith,  writing  to  Newcastle  (May 
22d),  reported  a  frank  expression  of  Kaunitz's  views. 


82  William  Pitt.  [i764- 

Prussia,  said  Kaunitz,  had  destroYed^he  old  equilib- 
rium of  Europe,  and  it  was  necessary  to  bring  in 
Russia  as  a  counterbalance  to  the  new  power.  The 
only  radical  remedy  was  the  restoration  of  the  former 
state  of  affairs;  that  is,  the  restitution  of  Silesia  to 
Maria  Theresa.^  A  demand  for  Austrian  troops  to 
asststrmtJefending  the  Low  Countries  against  France, 
and  Hanover  against  Prussia,  met  with  a  cold  reply, 
which  declared  that  ten  thousand  Austrians  would  be 
sent  if  England  sent  twenty  thousand,  secured  a 
Dutch  force  and  concluded  a  subsidy  treaty  with 
Russia.  The  English  answer  to  this  onerously  con- 
ditioned offer  was  delayed,  and  on  August  i6th  the 
Austrian  Council  decided  to  observe  a  neutrality,  and 
leave  the  Low  Countries  to  their  fate.  Although 
they  failed  in  obtaining  pledges  from  England's  al- 
lies in  the  last  war,  the  Ministers  achieved  greater 
success  with  the  former  allies  of  France.  At  Madrid, 
where  Wall  was  in  power,  the  French  Ambassador 
Duras  made  strenuous  exertions  to  secure  Spanish 
intervention  in  the  American  quarrel  on  behalf  of 
France.  He  went  so  far  as  to  denounce  Wall  for  his 
English  proclivities.  The  Spanish  reply  was  not 
encouraging.  His  Catholic  Majesty  regretted  the 
rupture  in  America,  but  observed  that  ''  there  should 
not  be  too  ostentatious  a  display  of  the  fortunate 
harmony  existing  between  the  two  branches  of  the 
Bourbon  house,  lest  the  jealousy  of  other  nations 
should  be  aroused."  f     This  temporary  interruption 


*  Waddington,  Louis  XV.  et  le  Renversement  des  Alliances  (1896), 

p.  134. 

\Ibid.^  122. 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power.  83 

of  Bourbon  amity  no  doubt  influenced  the  proposals 
made  to  Spain  by  Pitt  two  years  later.  >— - 

Negotiations  with  Prussia  began  in  July  through 
the  Duke  of  Brunswick.  An  inquiry  was  addressed 
to  Frederick,  whether  he  would  abstain  from  inter- 
fering with  the  defence  of  Hanover,  if  the  Electorate 
should  be  attacked.  Frederick  replied  that  the  time 
for  declaring  his  policy  was  not  yet,  but  he  would 
be  glad  to  further  an  amicable  settlement  between 
France  and  England.  His  position  was  delicate;  his 
French  treaty  of  alliance  would  expire  in  1756,  and 
he  desired  Louis  to  believe  that  Prussia  would  renew 
it.  At  the  same  time,  Frederick  knew  well  enough 
that  Maria  Theresa  passionately  desired  to  regain 
Silesia,  and  he  feared  that  English  money  might  sub- 
sidise a  hostile  combination  of  Austria,  Russia,  Sax- 
ony, and  Holland.  Especially  he  dreaded  the  Russian 
armies.  In  April,  1755,  he  strongly  advised  France  to 
attack  Hanover  at  once,  believing  that  with  Hanover 
occupied  England  would  speedily  come  to  terms ; 
Rouillee  welcomed  the  advice,  and  suggested  that 
the  invasion  would  be  admirably  executed  by  Prus- 
sian troops,  but  Frederick  observed  that  sixty  thou- 
sand Russians  encamped  every  summer  near  his 
frontier  and  declined  the  suggestion.  The  Anglo- 
Russian  treaty  was  the  key  of  the  position,  and  after 
it  was  signed  Frederick  quickly  decided  what  his 
action  should  be.  Hanbury  Williams  had  gone  to 
St.  Petersburg  to  arrange  a  convention  that  should 
intimidate  Prussia,  and  the  treaty  accomplished  its 
object.  Russia,  in  return  for  a  large  subsidy,  pro- 
mised to  maintain  fifty-five  thousand  men  on  the 


84  William  Pitt.  [1754- 

Livonian  frontier;  if  Great  Britain  or  her  allies  should 
be  attacked,  the  Russian  army  should  be  raised  to 
one  hundred  thousand,  while  England  engaged  to 
send  a  fleet  to  the  Baltic,  and  secure  a  passage 
through  Poland  for  the  Russian  troops.  A  secret 
article  provided  that  each  Power  should  communicate 
to  the  other  any  negotiation  with  the  common  en- 
emy."^ The  common  enemy,  according  to  the  Czar- 
ina Elizabeth,  was  the  King  of  Prussia.  When 
Frederick  saw  this  treaty  he  suggested  that  the  neu- 
trality of  Germany  should  be  guaranteed  by  Great 
Britain  and  Prussia,  and  on  January  16,  1756,  the 
Treaty  of  Westminster  was  signed.  Each  nation  was 
pledged  not  to  attack  the  other,  and  to  persuade  its 
allies  to  refrain  from  such  attack ;  both  agreed  to 
unite  forces  against  any  state  invading  Germany, 
from  which  the  Austrian  Low  Countries  were  ex- 
pressly excluded  ;  all  treaties  of  guaranty  between 
the  two  nations  were  renewed.  When  the  treaty 
came  before  Parliament,  Pitt  said  that  he  would  not 
have  signed  it  for  all  the  five  great  places  of  those 
whose  signatures  were  attached.  He  did  not  foresee 
that  America  would  be  conquered  in  Germany,  and 
his  opposition  to  this  treaty  was  one  of  the  greatest 
errors  in  his  political  career. 

The  effect  of  the  treaty  in  Europe  was  not  so 
advantageous  to  Frederick  as  he  expected.  The 
Anglo-Russian  treaty  was  ratified  on  February  14, 
1756,  and  while  England  declared  that  Russian  troops 
would  only  be  requisitioned  in  the  event  of  an  at- 
tack on  Hanover,  Russia  made  the  very   different 

*  Waddington,  op.  cit.,  152. 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power,  85 

declaration  that  the  troops  would  march,  should 
Prussia,  the  "  common  enemy  "  of  the  secret  article, 
attack  England  or  an  ally  of  England.  Among  the 
allies  of  England  it  was  to  be  understood  that  Aus- 
tria was  included,  so  that  Frederick  was  still  ex- 
posed to  Russian  hostility  if  he  attacked  Maria 
Theresa.  Prussia  was  further  endangered  by  the 
complete  breach  with  France  that  followed  the 
Treaty  of  Westminster.  Kaunitz  heard  of  that 
treaty  with  satisfaction  :  he  believed  the  antagonism 
between  the  Hapsburgs  and  Bourbons  was  a  foolish 
survival,  and  that  an  alliance  between  the  two  great 
Catholic  Powers  might  control  Europe  and  avenge 
Austria.  His  plans  were  greatly  helped  by  the 
Czarina's  declaration  (April,  1756)  that  she  would 
place  eighty  thousand  men  in  the  field  against 
Prussia,  and  would  not  make  peace  till  Silesia  was 
restored  to  Maria  Theresa.  Louis  declined  to  en- 
gage in  the  scheme  for  partitioning  Prussia  proposed 
by  Kaunitz.  But  the  first  step  was  taken  and  a  de- 
fensiv£_alitarrce  was  arranged  by  the  first  Treaty  of 
Versailles  (May,.J7^)^y_wlLUih^^AAistria  agreed  to 
give  no  aid  to  England,  and  FranceviTas  pledged 
not  to  invade  the  Low  Countries.  The  system  of 
Europe  was  thus  completely  changed. 

The  French  King  waited  for  months  after  the 
hostile  acts  committed  by  the  English  before  he  re- 
taliated, either  by  practical  measures  or  by  a  declar- 
ation of  war.  By  ostentatious  preparations  in  his 
ports  from  Dunkirk  to  Brest,  he  had,  as  we  have  seen, 
caused  considerable  panic  among  his  enemies,  and 
these  preparations  were  a  skilful   disguise  for  the 


86  William  Pitt.  11754- 

bold  andnovel  scheme  conceived  by  his  Ministers. 
It  was  decided  to  attack  Minorca,  and  an  expedition 
consisting  of  twelve  thousand  men,  under  the  Due 
de  Richelieu,  and  twelve  ships  of  the  line  (with  no 
fewer  than  two  hundred  transports)  under  La  Galis- 
soni^re,  one  of  the  most  capable  of  French  naval 
commanders,  left  Toulon  on  April  10,  1756.  One 
of  the  gravest  charges  which  history  has  brought 
against  Newcastle's  government  is  that  it  culpably 
neglected  all  plans  for  defeating  this  scheme.  The 
fleet  under  Admiral  Byng,  intended  to  intercept  the 
French  expedition,  did  not  sail  from  Spithead  until 
April  7th.  Byng,  failing  to  defeat  the  French  ad- 
miral, could  not  raise  the  siege  and  Minorca  capitu- 
lated in  June. 

These  events  had  created  great  excitement  in 
France  and  England  ;  the  former  country  declared 
war  formally  on  May  nth,  the  latter  a  week  later, 
and  this  first  incident  in  the  war  caused  immense 
rejoicings  in  Paris,  and  equal  shame  and  indignation 
in  London.  There  was  a  great  outcry  against  Min- 
isters, and  Newcastle  was  in  a  perturbed  fever  of 
fear.  To  the  deputation  from  the  city  which  waited 
on  him  to  demand  punishment  for  Byng,  he  replied, 
"  Oh,  indeed,  he  shall  be  tried  immediately ;  he 
shall  be  hanged  directly."  That  their  own  conduct 
might  be  screened.  Ministers  adopted  and  stimulated 
the  wild  popular  anger  against  the  admiral ;  Hawke 
was  sent  to  Gibraltar  to  arrest  Byng  and  West,  and 
they  were  immediately  brought  to  England  as  pris- 
oners. The  opinion  of  more  disinterested  persons 
was  reflected  in  a  letter  of  George  Grenville  to  Pitt. 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power.  %"] 

"What  can  be  the  excuse  for  sending  a  force,  which  at 
the  utmost  is  scarcely  equal  to  the  enemy,  upon  so  im- 
portant and  decisive  an  expedition  ?  Though  in  the 
venality  of  this  hour,  it  may  be  deemed  sufficient  to 
throw  the  whole  blame  upon  Byng,  yet  I  will  venture  to 
say  the  other  is  a  question  that,  in  the  judgment  of  every 
impartial  man,  now  and  hereafter,  will  require  a  better 
answer  than,  I  am  afraid,  can  be  given  to  it."  * 

Naval  tacticians  have  been  divided  in  their  opinions 
on  the  wisdom  of  Byng's  actions,  but  the  chief  blame 
for  the  loss  of  Minorca  must  lie  upon  the  Min- 
isters who  delayed  so  long  the  preparations 
for  defence,  and  then  dispatched  a  fleet  inad- 
equate in  strength,  ill-manned,  and  in  bad  condi- 
tion. In  the  year  1756,  France  possessed  sixty-three 
ships  of  the  line,  England  one  hundred  and  forty- 
five,  and  there  was  no  reason  why  Byng  should 
not  have  been  furnished  with  a  much  stronger  fleet. 
The  theoretical  command  of  the  sea  had  not  se- 
cured immunity  from  attack ;  notwithstanding  the 
immensely  greater  strength  of  the  English  naval  re- 
sources, the  French  expedition  to  Canada,  with  the 
exception  of  two  ships,  had  eluded  Boscawen,  and 
La  Galissoni^re  had  decisively  prevented  the  relief 
of  Minorca. 

Before  the  definite  news  that  Minorca  was  lost 
reached  London,  Parliament  had  risen  ;  but  there 
had  arrived  rumours  of  disaster  when  Pitt  spoke  in 
the  great  debate  of  May  1 1,  1756. 

"He  charged  Ministers  with  having  provoked  before 
they  could  defend  and  neglected  after  provocation  ;  with 
*Chatham  Correspondence,  i.,  163. 


88  William  Pitt 


[1754- 


having  left  the  country  inferior  to  France  in  every 
quarter.  He  prayed  to  God  that  his  Majesty  might  not 
have  Minorca,  like  Calais,  written  upon  his  heart !  If 
he  saw  a  child  (Newcastle)  driving  a  go-cart  close  to  the 
edge  of  a  precipice,  with  the  precious  freight  of  an  old 
king  and  his  family,  he  was  bound  to  take  the  reins  out 
of  such  hands." 

The  picturesque  image  of  the  go-cart  captured 
the  public  fancy.  It  aptly  called  up  the  trivial 
absurdities  of  the  chief  Minister,  whose  nerveless 
hands  were  so  unfit  to  hold  the  reins  of  government 
at  this  crisis.  A  great  wave  of  angry  popular  feel- 
ing was  rising  throughout  the  land.  From  all  the  chief 
counties  and  towns  addresses  were  sent,  demanding 
strict  inquiry  into  the  Minorca  disaster,  and  the  city 
of  London  suggested  that  supplies  should  be  stopped 
until  grievances  had  been  redressed.  The  year  was 
marked  by  other  losses  which  added  fuel  to  the  fire 
when  they  become  known  ;  in  June,  Calcutta  was 
captured  by  Surajah  Dowlah,  while  in  America,  Mont- 
calm captured  the  important  fortress  of  Oswego  for 
the  French  (August).  In  Europe  it  became  clear 
that  the  treaty  with  Prussia  would  entail  heavy 
responsibilities  ;  Frederick  asserted,  prematurely  in 
fact,  that  the  defensive  alliance  between  Austria  and 
France  had  grown  into  the  famous  coalition  of  les 
trois  cotillons  (Elizabeth  of  Russia,  Maria  Theresa, 
and  the  Pompadour),  who,  together  with  Saxony, 
had  conceived  an  elaborate  scheme  for  the  division 
of  his  entire  possessions.  Before  the  year  was  out, 
the  Prussian  King  had  occupied  Saxony  and  defeated 
the  Austrians  at  Lobositz  (October  ist).     It  is  not 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power,  89 

surprising  that  contemporary  and  later  historians 
should  describe  this  year  as  one  of  the  most  humiliat- 
ing in  English  history ;  England's  only  ally  was 
launched  upon  a  struggle  so  unequal  that  it  seemed 
inconceivable  that  his  little  kingdom  should  survive,  a 
naval  rebuff  had  shaken  confidence  in  the  chief  arm 
of  defence,  important  losses  in  East  and  West  had 
caused  a  great  diminution  of  empire,  while  the 
island  itself  was  protected  by  hired  mercenaries  from 
Hanover  and  Hesse. 

In  the  political  world  at  home,  events  occurred 
which,  in  combination  with  these  greater  difficulties, 
so  greatly  impressed  Parliament  that  Newcastle  was 
compelled  to  resign,  though  his  majority  still  re- 
mained secure.  Popular  agitation  always  produced 
its  effect  on  the  Parliaments  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  Both  Pitt  and  his  great  son  were  strength- 
ened by  this  obscurely  working  but  manifestly 
potent  force.  Other  causes,  within  the  ringed  fence 
of  the  privileged  classes,  were  working  for  Pitt  at  this 
time.  The  heir  to  the  throne  came  of  age,  and  after 
some  blundering  negotiations  by  Newcastle  and 
Hardwicke,  a  new  opposition  Court  was  firmly  estab- 
lished. The  influence  of  the  Princess  Dowager  and 
Lord  Bute  remained  secure,  and  was  thrown  upon 
the  side  of  Pitt.  To  add  to  Newcastle's  embarrass- 
ment, the  Chief  Justice  died,  and  Murray  insisted  on 
being  appointed  to  his  place.  The  Premier  bid 
higher  and  higher  with  offers  of  place  and  pensions 
to  persuade  Murray  to  stay  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons; all  the  offers  were  declined  and  the  Ministry 
was  bereft  of  its  ablest  apologist.     Finally,  Fox,  who 


90  William  Pitt.  [1754- 

had  never  trusted  Newcastle  and  who  hoped  to  se- 
cure greater  power  by  other  arrangements,  resigned 
his  office,  and  the  timid  and  blundering  Minister  was 
left  face  to  face  with  an  angry  people. 

Having  once  more  quarrelled  with  Fox,  Newcastle 
hoped  that  he  might  again  turn  to  Fox's  rival.  Fox 
had  presented  a  memorial  to  the  King,'^  stating  the 
ground  of  his  resignation,  and  intimating  that  he 
supposed  his  place  would  be  offered  to  Pitt,  which 
he  hoped  was  in  negotiation.  His  view  was  that 
Pitt  would  not  consent  to  join  Newcastle,  and  that 
the  Premier  being  thus  isolated,  a  new  coalition 
might  be  formed  between  Pitt  and  himself.  In  a 
letter  to  Hardwicke,f  Newcastle  gives  an  account 
of  his  interview  with  the  King. 

"  I  found  the  King  in  good  humour.  ...  *  I  (the  King) 
knew  a  person  of  consequence,  sense  and  good  intentions 
(which  person  I  know  to  be  my  Lord  Hyde,  and  honest 
Munchausen  told  it  the  King  this  morning),  said  that 
there  were  but  three  things — to  call  in  Pitt — to  make  up 
with  my  own  family — and,  my  Lord,  I  have  forgot  the 
third.  Pitt  (says  the  person)  is  a  man,  that  when  once  he 
has  taken  a  post,  will  go  thro'  with  it  steadily,  and  more 
ably  than  Fox.'  *  That,  Sir,'  says  I,  *  everybody  says.' 
I  then  shewed  the  King  a  proper  extract  of  your  Lord- 
ship's letter,  which  had  such  an  effect  that  His  Majesty 
ordered  me  immediately,  or  gave  me  leave,  to  have  Mr. 
Pitt  sounded,  whether  he  would  come  and  support  the 
King's  affairs,  and  be  Secretary  of  State  but  that  was  not 
to  be  raised  at  first  ;  but  what  was  more,  that  if  he  would^ 


*  Grenville  Papers,  i.,  174. 
f  Harris's  Hardwicke,  iii.,  63. 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power.  91 

he  should  meet  with  or  have  a  good  reception.  These  were 
the  King's  own  words,  and  great  use  may  be  made  of 
them — they  must  make  an  impression.  ...  The  King 
asked  me,  '  Suppose  Pitt  will  not  serve  with  you  ?*  '  Then, 
Sir,  I  must  go.*  .  .  .  My  Lord  Holderness  and  I 
went  together  to  Lady  Yarmouth,  whom  we  found  quite 
altered,  saying  good  things  of  Pitt." 

Hardwicke  was  deputed  to  see  Pitt,  and  on  Octo- 
ber 19th  the  interview  took  place.  "We  fought  all 
the  weapons  through  (writes  the  Chancellor),  but  his 
final  answer  was  totally  negative.  He  was  very  po- 
lite, and  full  of  professions  to  me,  but  the  great 
obstacles  are  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  and  measures ; 
and  without  change  of  both,  't  is  impossible  for  him 
to  come."  *  Pitt  asserted  that  in  order  to  reassure 
and  reanimate  the  people  of  England,  another  head 
of  administration  was  necessary.  The  party  of  Fox 
was  jubilant  when  they  heard  that  Pitt  had  decided 
not  to  accept  office,  while  Newcastle  and  Hardwicke 
appear  to  have  believed  that  Pitt  and  Fox  were 
acting  in  concert.  The  Opposition  leader,  whose 
personal  importance  was  at  last  being  clearly  de- 
monstrated, endeavoured  to  pave  the  way  to  favour 
with  the  King.  He  paid  a  visit  to  Lady  Yarmouth, 
the  reigning  mistress  of  the  day,  a  woman  of  Hano- 
verian charms,  whose  influence  was  greatly  courted 
by  politicians.  Pitt  had  not  previously  visited  her, 
which,  as  Hardwicke  said,  was  more  remarkable  than 
that  he  should  visit  her  now.  What  occurred  at  this 
unique  interview  is  unhappily  not  known.     Pitt  was 

*  To  Royston,  October  21,  1756. 


92  William  Pitt.  [1754- 

excluded  from  all  direct  communication  with  his 
sovereign,  and  it  was  important  to  him  that  at  this 
moment  a  veracious  account  of  his  policy  should  be 
given  to  the  King.  It  is  evident,  from  Newcastle's 
letter  to  Hardwicke,  that  before  this  visit.  Lady 
Yarmouth  had  come  to  take  a  more  favourable  view 
of  Pitt  than  she  had  previously  entertained  ;  ^  we 
know  nothing  of  any  influence  in  his  favour  which 
had  before  this  visit  been  brought  to  bear  upon  her, 
nor  is  it  at  all  clear  that  the  King  was  greatly  affected 
by  any  admonitions  which  Lady  Yarmouth  may  have 
offered  on  Pitt's  behalf. 

Newcastle  had  said  that  if  Pitt  would  not  serve 
under  him  he  must  resign  ;  but  he  found  it  difficult 
to  relinquish  power,  and  he  was  urged  by  Hardwicke 
and  Lyttleton  to  continue  in  the  face  of  Fox  and 
Pitt.  A  despairing  effort  to  secure  a  nominal  chief 
who  would  work  with  Hardwicke  and  himself  led 
Newcastle  to  make  great  offers  to  Granville  and 
Egmont.  Granville  was  old  and  pressed  for  money, 
and  he  preferred  his  present  position  to  an  oppor- 
tunity for  which  in  earlier  days  he  would  have  paid 
a  high  price.  "  I  will  be  hanged  a  little  before  I  take 
your  place  rather  than  a  little  after,"  said  he.  The 
inevitable  had  to  be  faced,  and  Newcastle  at  last 
informed  the  King  that  he  must  resign.  The  King 
sent  for  Fox  and  told  him  to  try  if  Pitt  would  join 
with  him. 

*  But,  on  the  day  before  his  resignation,  Fox  wrote  to  Lord  Digby  : 
"  Lady  Yarmouth  denied  any  thought  of  Pitt  ever  having  been  sug- 
gested to  the  King.  I  said  with  truth  that  I  was  very  sorry  for  it. 
She  then  pressed  me  with  really  great  force  (to  stay  in)."  Digby 
MSS.,  Hist.  MSS.,  8  Rep.,  App.  i. 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power,  93 

Fox,  the  next  day,  went  to  the  Prince's  lev^e,  and, 
taking  Pitt  aside  at  the  head  of  the  stairs,  said  to  him  : 

*'*  Are  you  going  to  Stowe  ?  I  ask  because  I  believe 
you  will  have  a  message  of  consequence  by  persons  of 
consequence.'  *  You  surprise  me,'  said  Pitt  ;*  are  you 
to  be  of  the  number?'  Fox:  '  I  don't  know.*  Pitt: 
'  One  likes  to  say  things  to  men  of  sense,  and  of  your 
great  sense  rather  than  others  ;  and  yet  it  is  difficult 
even  to  you.'  Fox  :  '  What  !  You  mean  you  will  not 
act  with  me  as  a  Minister?'  Pitt  :  '  I  do.'  And  then, 
to  soften  the  abruptness  of  the  declaration,  left  Fox  with 
saying  he  hoped  Fox  would  take  an  active  part,  which 
his  health  would  not  permit  him  to  do.*  " 

The  King  now  sent  for  the  Duke  of  Devonshire, 
a  man  of  great  influence,  probity,  and  common- 
sense,  and  ordered  him  to  form  a  Ministry  and  if 
possible  to  reconcile  Pitt  with  Fox.  The  Duke  had 
been  friendly  with  Fox  and  his  inclinations  were  en- 
tirely in  favour  of  the  old  Whig  party,  but  he 
realised  that  Fox's  unpopularity  was  great,  and  that 
Pitt  had  favour  with  the  people.  Fox  began  to  see 
that  Pitt  was  a  man  much  more  to  be  feared  than 
Newcastle,  and  he  did  all  in  his  power  to  persuade 
Devonshire  to  form  a  Ministry  drawn  mainly  from 
the  Bedford  and  old  Whig  corps.  His  plan  was  to 
admit  Pitt  as  Secretary  but  to  cut  down  his  sup- 
porters, to  exclude  Legge  from  office,  and  himself 


*  Walpole's  Memoirs  of  George  II.,  ii.,  262.  Fox  wrote  to  Lord 
George  Sackville  :  "  Mr.  Pitt  is  arrogant,  and  I  think  dishonest,  he 
takes  the  whole  upon  him  ....  I  will  endeavour  to  make  his 
administration  as  little  detrimental  as  may  be."  Hist.  MSS.,  9 
Rep.,  App.  3,  p.  10. 


94  William  Pitt.  [1754- 

to  become  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  In  calmer 
times  the  plan  might  have  succeeded,  but  with  so 
strong  a  popular  demand  for  more  efficient  govern- 
ment, and  for  inquiry  into  the  maladministration 
which  had  lost  Minorca,  such  a  reconstruction  as 
Fox  plotted  would  have  been  disastrous,  and  if  the 
King  had  been  involved  in  it,  might  have  created  a 
threatening  situation.  Devonshire  was  persuaded 
at  the  last  moment  to  reject  the  whole  plan  ;  he 
told  the  King  he  would  accept  office  on  November 
3rd,  and  negotiated  frankly  with  Pitt.  Newcastle 
gave  up  the  seals  on  November  nth,  and  was 
followed  by  Hardwicke  on  November  19th.  There 
still  remained  difficulties  to  be  overcome.  The  King 
had  been  alarmed  that  a  man  such  as  Pitt,  *'  who 
says  he  has  not  even  read  Wicquefort,"  should  be 
Secretary  of  State,  and  was  especially  distressed 
that  he  should  demand  the  northern  province  of 
foreign  affairs,  which  included  Hanover.  Pitt 
yielded  on  this  point  and  took  the  southern  prov- 
ince, Lord  Holderness  remaining  as  Secretary  for 
the  north  ;  Temple  went  to  the  Admiralty,  Legge 
became  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  George  Gren- 
ville,  Treasurer  of  the  Navy,  and  the  great  seal  was 
put  into  commission.  The  Duke  of  Bedford  went 
to  Ireland  as  Lord  Lieutenant.  The  changes  were 
indeed  so  few  that  Temple  and  Pitt  were  alone  in 
the  Cabinet,  the  remaining  members  being  followers 
of  either  Fox  or  Newcastle.  Devonshire,  the 
nominal  head,  acted  loyally  with  Pitt.  The  new 
Ministers  had  some  difficulty  in  finding  seats.  Pitt 
himself  could  not  continue  to  sit  for  Aldburgh,  but 


WILLIAM  PITT. 

FROM  THE  PAINTING  BY  W.  HOARE  IN  THE  NATIONAL  PORTRAIT  GALLERY. 


Walker  &  Cockerell. 


1767]  Pitt  Attains  Power,  95 

he  was  elected  for  Okehampton,  Lyttleton's  former 
constituency.  Pitt's  old  friend,  on  going  out  of 
ofifice  with  Newcastle,  had  been  raised  to  the 
peerage. 

Parliament  met  on  December  2d,  and  the  King's 
speech  displayed  the  change  of  spirit  in  the  new 
Ministry.  The  addresses  from  towns  and  counties 
in  favour  of  strict  inquiry  into  the  loss  of  Minorca 
were  described  as  "  signal  proofs  how  dearly  my 
subjects  tender  my  honour,"  it  was  announced  that 
the  foreign  troops  were  under  orders  to  return 
to  Germany,  and  the  scheme  for  a  national  militia 
was  recommended  to  Parliament.  In  the  debate  on 
the  address 

"  Mr.  Pitt  made  an  artful,  able  speech,  and  represented 
the  state  of  affairs  abroad  and  at  home  as  bad  as  pos- 
sible, told  us  he  was  afraid  we  would  be  beat  next  sum- 
mer, talked  of  making  great  efforts  this  year,  and  when 
you  had  done  all  you  could  for  yourselves,  then  you 
must  see  how  far  you  could  afford  to  act  upon  the  con- 
tinent, that  you  must  go  as  far  as  the  interests  of  this 
country  were  combined  with  those  of  the  Powers  on  the 
continent,  for  combined  they  were."* 

The  first  matter  of  importance  arising  was  the 
fate  of  Admiral  Byng.  The  court-martial  found  that 
he  **did  not  do  his  utmost"  to  relieve  St.  Phihp's 
Castle,  to  attack  the  French  fleets,  or  to  assist  the 
English  ships  engaged.  By  the  twelfth  article  of 
the  Act  under  which  he  was  tried,  the  punishment 
for  such  failure  was  death,  with  no  alternative  left 

*Digby  to  Lord  Digby,  Hist.  MSS.,  8  Rep.,  App.  4.,  222. 


96  William  Pitt.  [1754- 

to  the  discretion  of  the  Court,  and  the  sentence  of 
death  was  therefore  passed,  but  the  Admiral  was 
recommended  to  mercy  and  was  expressly  acquitted 
of  cowardice  or  disaffection.  The  popular  feeling 
roused  by  the  loss  of  Minorca  was  not  assuaged  by 
this  verdict,  and  though  a  great  effort  was  made  to 
save  Byng  by  some  politicians,  amongst  whom 
Horace  Walpole  was  honourably  conspicuous,  and 
by  Pitt  and  Temple,  the  members  of  the  former 
Ministry  felt  that  the  punishment  of  the  Admiral 
might  screen  themselves,  and  great  influence  was 
brought  upon  the  King  to  prevent  his  commuting 
the  sentence.  Pitt  and  Temple  showed  courage  and 
honesty  ;  they  braved  the  King,  whose  good-will 
was  essential  to  them,  and  they  ignored  the  violent 
mob  anger  against  the  Admiral,  though  it  was  popu- 
lar support  which  had  brought  them  into  office. 
Temple  showed  characteristic  bluntness  and  lack  of 
diplomacy,  roughly  insinuating  to  the  King  that  his 
Majesty's  conduct  at  Oudenarde  resembled  Byng's 
at  Minorca.  Pitt  told  the  King  that  the  House  of 
Commons  wished  that  a  pardon  should  be  granted. 
''  You  have  taught  me  to  look  for  the  sense  of  my 
subjects  in  another  place  than  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons," was  the  King's  answer.  The  efforts  for 
humanity  were  ineffectual,  and  on  March  14,  1757, 
Admiral  Byng  was  shot.  Dans  ce  pays  gi  it  est  bon 
de  tuer  de  temps  en  temps  un  Amir  at  pour  encourager 
les  autres,  wrote  Voltaire  in  Candide.  Pitt's  declar- 
ation in  the  House  was  characteristic  in  its  pride 
and  eloquence.  ''  May  I  fall  when  I  refuse  pity  to 
such  a  suit  as  Mr.  Keppel's,  justifying  a  man  who 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power,  97 

lies  in  captivity  and  the  shadow  of  death !  I  thank 
God  I  feel  something  more  than  popularity,  I  feel 
justice."* 

Vigorous  measures  were  taken  for  the  war.  Sup- 
plies for  the  year  1757  amounted  to  ;£^8,355,320,  an 
increase  of  more  than  a  million  on  the  previous  year  ; 
fifty-five  thousand  men  were  granted  for  the  navy 
and  forty-five  thousand  for  the  army.  Squadrons 
were  immediately  dispatched  to  India  and  the  West 
Indies,  and  Pitt  announced  that  he  intended  to  em- 
ploy the  whole  British  fleet.  The  M^ilitia  Act  was 
passed  by  the  Lords  and  provided  for  the  training 
of  thirty-two  thousand  three  hundred  and  forty  men. 
The  measure  had  received  much  popular  support  on 
being  proposed,  but  was  for  a  time  after  its  enact- 
ment greatly  feared  and  disliked,  as  it  was  believed 
by  the  people  that  they  might  be  compelled  to  serve 
abroad.  The  most  striking  of  Pitt's  measures  was 
the  enlistment  of  Highland  regiments.  Two  thou- 
sand men  were  raised  for  the  American  service,  and 
placed  under  the  command  of  their  natural  leaders, 
the  heads  of  their  clans.  Eighty  non-commissioned 
officers  who  could  speak  Gaelic  were  drafted  into  the 
new  regiments  from  the  existing  Scottish  force. 
This  measure  had  been  previously  suggested  by 
Scottish  gentlemen,  but  Pitt  deserves  the  credit  due 
to  the  first  Minister  who  had  sufficient  courage  and 
sagacity  to  trust  the  Highlanders.  By  this  one  act 
he  assuaged  the  discontent  of  a  brave  people  and 
added  to  the  British  army  troops^Mch  have  never 
been  excelled  in  all  the  militaj^BBMes.     The  con- 


*  Walpole's  Memoirs  of  George  11,^  i 
7 


gS  William  Pitt.  [1764- 

trast  between  Newcastle  purchasing  Hessians  and 
Pitt  enlisting  Highlanders  well  illustrates  the  differ- 
ent qualities  of  the  two  men.  Newcastle  had  pro- 
vided one  battalion  for  America  ;  Pitt  sent  eight,  and 
largely  increased  the  Royal  Artillery  and  the 
Marines. 

Pitt  himself  proposed  that  a  sum  of  ;^200,ooo 
should  be  granted  in  support  of  Hanover  and  the 
King  of  Prussia  ;  the  inconsistency  of  such  a  measure 
with  his  earlier  declamations  against  the  Electorate, 
was  apparently  great,  and  Fox  did  not  lose  the  op- 
portunity of  criticism.  It  is  very  remarkable  that 
the  House  passed  the  vote  7iemine  contradicente,  and 
that  the  nation  appears  to  have  lost  none  of  its  con- 
fidence in  Pitt  because  of  this  change  in  policy. 
The  inconsistency  is  glaring,  and  is  not  altered  be- 
cause the  money  was  to  go  chiefly  to  Prussia,  as  Pitt 
had  actually  opposed  the  Westminster  Convention 
with  Frederick.  His  opposition  to  that  Convention 
was  a  mistake,  and  he  now  realised  that  it  was  a 
mistake.  He  began  to  trust  Frederick,  whom  he 
described  a  few  months  later  as  that  King  who  saw 
all,  did  all,  knew  all,  did  everything,  was  everything  ! 
But  he  never  approved  the  plan  of  helping  Hanover 
by  going  to  market  for  German  Princes.  "  Don't  go 
on  subsidising  little  Princes  here  and  there,  and 
fancy  that  altogether  they  will  make  a  King  of 
Prussia."  ^ 

The  Ministry  was  popular  with  the  country,  but  it 
lacked  a  majority  in  Parliament  and  favour  at  Court. 
The  King  objected  to  the  lengthy  speeches  of  Pitt 

*  Walpole's  Memoirs  of  George  II.,  iii.,  17, 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power,  99 

in  the  closet,  and  the  bad  manners  of  Temple ;  he 
leaned  more  and  more  on  Cumberland,  who  was  to 
take  command  of  the  Hanoverian  army,  to  whom  he 
looked  to  save  his  Electorate,  as  he  had  saved  his 
crown.  The  great  bulk  of  the  Whigs  were  support- 
ers of  Newcastle  or  Fox,  and  Pitt  must  quickly  have 
realised  that  he  could  not  hope  to  carry  on  the  gov- 
ernment for  long.  The  Leicester  House  influence, 
the  small  body  which  followed  the  Grenville  cousin- 
hood,  and  the  preference  of  the  Tories  for  him 
which  resulted  partly  from  his  strong  patriotism  and 
belief  in  England's  power  to  defend  herself,  and 
partly  from  the  Leicester  House  good-will,  these 
were  the  only  sources  of  strength  to  Pitt.  Lyttleton 
wrote  to  his  brother  early  in  1757 : 

"  Mr.  Pitt  is  accused  of  a  coalition  with  the  Tories  ; 
and  certain  it  is  that  he  has  become  the  Cocoa-Tree 
toast,  from  being  the  object  of  their  aversion  last  year. 
What  has  caused  the  change  it  is  hard  to  say.  He  de- 
nies any  promise  of  advantage  to  them  ;  but  the  alarm 
has  been  taken  so  strong  by  the  Whigs  that  if  the  Duke 
of  Newcastle  and  my  Lord  Hardwicke  would  have  joined 
with  Mr.  Fox  to  turn  him  out,  it  is  certain  they  might 
have  done  it  before  this  time,  and  may  do  it  to-morrow."  * 

It  was,  however,  not  by  any  adverse  Parliamentary 
event  that  the  Ministry  was  overthrown,  but  by  the 
advice  of  Cumberland,  who  requested  the  King  to 
dismiss  Pitt  before  he  started  to  take  command  of 
the  army  in  Hanover.  On  April  5th,  Holderness 
informed  Temple  that  the  King  no  longer  required 

*  "  This  new  administration  has  the  Tories  and  nothing  but  the 
Tories  to  support  them."     Hist.  MSS.,  8  Rep.,  App.  4,  p.  223. 


loo  William  Pitt.  11754- 

his  services;  Pitt  and  Legge  declined  to  resign,  and 
they  too  were  dismissed  a  few  days  later.  The  na- 
tion showed  its  resentment  against  this  action,  and 
its  confidence  in  the  men  dismissed,  by  strong  ex- 
pressions of  feeling.  The  great  towns  sent  the  free- 
dom of  their  cities  to  Pitt,  and,  in  the  famous  phrase 
of  Horace  Walpole,  **  for  some  weeks  it  rained  gold 
boxes."  The  tenure  of  office  from  December  to 
April  had  been  too  brief  for  any  great  achievement, 
but  it  is  evident  that  the  nation  recognised  and  wel- 
comed a  new  and  higher  spirit  in  the  administration 
of  its  affairs ;  something  at  least  had  been  done,  in 
Pitt's  own  words,  to  reassure  and  reanimate  the 
people  of  England. 

The  interregnum  which  followed  the  dismissal  of 
Pitt  is  one  of  the  most  curious  incidents  in  English 
history  :  Devonshire  remained  at  the  Treasury, 
Winchelsea  took  the  Admiralty,  and  Holderness 
conducted  the  work  of  the  Secretaries  of  State,  but 
in  reality  there  was  no  administration  for  eleven 
weeks,  while  a  formidable  war  was  being  waged. 
The  inquiry  into  the  loss  of  Minorca,  which  was 
managed  by  the  Townshends,  caused  Newcastle  and 
Fox  to  view  the  political  situation  with  fear;  they 
would  not  act  together,  and  though  Newcastle  was 
urged  by  Hardwicke  and  others  to  take  office  with- 
out Pitt  or  Fox,  he  wisely  declined  the  ordeal.  Fox 
had  the  credit  of  advising  Cumberland  to  secure  the 
dismissal  of  Pitt,  and  the  overthrow  of  the  Govern- 
ment in  the  midst  of  a  crisis  had  not  improved  his 
reputation  for  patriotism.  Pitt  observed,  during  the 
progress  of  the  inquiry,  a  cold  neutrality;    events 


1757]  Pitt  Attains  Power,  loi 

were  serving  his  turn.  The  inquiry  clearly  showed 
that  the  late  Government  had  been  culpably  negli- 
gent, and  both  his  rivals  were  involved  in  the  inevit- 
able blame. 

The  inquiry  ended  without  direct  censure.  A 
k)ng  series  of  negotiations  followed,  and  a  union  be- 
tween Pitt  and  Newcastle  was  secured  by  the  good 
offices  of  Chesterfield,  and  on  June  29th  the  new  Min- 
istry kissed  hands. 

It  was  a  combination  of  all  the  Powers  with  Pitt 
supreme.  Newcastle  took  the  Treasury.  Fox  be- 
came Paymaster  on  the  understanding  that  he  was 
to  do  nothing  but  receive  his  salary ;  Legge  was 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer ;  Temple,  Privy  Seal ; 
and  Anson,  to  the  chagrin  of  the  city,  was  restored 
to  the  Admiralty ;  Pratt,  afterwards  illustrious  as 
Camden  and  the  friend  of  Chatham,  became  Attor- 
ney-General, while  Pitt  was  Secretary  of  State  with 
Holderness,  who  could  never  rival  him,  as  his  co- 
secretary.  The  inclusion  of  Fox  in  a  subordinate 
office  abated- a^foppositicrr^t-Nowcastteroommande 
of  the  parTTairreTrtai^y  battalions,  was  united  to  Pitt 
who  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  the  nation.  "  I  bor- 
rowed the  Duke  of  Newcastle's  majority  to  carry  on 
the  business  of  the  country,"  said  Pitt,  and  an  excel- 
lent bargain  he  made  by  leaving  patronage  to  his 
colleague  while  he  retained  power  for  himself. 

He  was  at  last  in  the  saddle.  The  emergency 
which  England  had  to  meet  was  of  the  gravest,  but 
was  to  be  met  in  the  spirit  of  confidence.  "  My 
Lord,"  he  had  said  to  the  Duke  of  Devonshire,  "  I 
believe  that  I  can  save  this  country  and  that  no  one 


I02  William  Pitt, 


[1754-1757] 


else  can."  The  situation  was  perilous  for  England, 
not  only  because  she  had  lost  Minorca  and  was 
threatened  in  India  and  America,  but  because  in  the 
beginning  of  this  war  a  strange  timidity  and  hesita- 
tion affected  her  officers.  The  temper  of  the  two 
nations  on  the  eve  of  the  struggle  is  reflected  in  the 
famous  prophecy  of  Chesterfield,  and  in  the  opinion 
of  one  who  knew  much  of  France.  *'  Whoever  is  in, 
or  whoever  is  out,  I  am  sure  we  are  undone  both  at 
home  and  abroad,"  wrote  Chesterfield,  "we  are  no 
longer  a  nation.  I  never  yet  saw  so  dreadful  a  pros- 
pect." On  the  other  hand.  Sir  Andrew  Mitchell  re- 
ported from  M.  de  Knyphausen  that  the  French 
designed  an  attack  on  Madras,  and  were  sending 
more  troops  to  America.  "  When  I  hinted  that 
there  were  vast  designs  to  be  executed  in  the  East 
and  West  Indies  at  the  same  time  by  the  French, 
who  were  not  yet  masters  of  the  sea,  he  answered, 
'They  are  so  flushed  with  the  conquest  of  Port  Ma- 
hon,  and  their  successes  in  North  America,  that  they 
are  capable  of  undertaking  anything.'  " 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PITT'S   WAR   MINISTRY. 
1757-1761. 

WHEN  Pitt  resumed  office,  the  diplomatic 
preparations  of  Europe  were  complete, 
and  it  was  possible  to  compute  the  strength 
of  the  two  opposing  sides.  Frederick,  in  his  justifi- 
cation of  the  invasion  of  Saxony,  had  inaccurately- 
asserted  that  a  combination  existed  with  the  object 
of  partitioning  his  kingdom.  At  the  time  when  the 
invasion  was  made,  the  alliance  between  France  and 
Austria  was  purely  defensive,  and  Louis  had  not 
agreed  to  join  the  extensive  scheme  of  Maria  The- 
resa and  the  Czarina  Elizabeth.  It  was  the  invasion 
of  Saxony  which  determined  the  French  King  to 
adopt  an  offensive  alliance.  The  daughter  of  the 
Saxon  King,  Augustus  III.,  was  the  wife  of  the 
Dauphin,  while  France  had  guaranteed  Saxony  at 
the  great  settlement  of  Westphalia.  Frederick's  in- 
sult to  so  close  an  ally  of  France  induced  Louis  to 
accede  at  last  to  the  plan  of  partition  which  Maria 
Theresa,  EHzabeth,  and  the  Pompadour  so  ardently 
desired.     The    Russian   and    Hungarian  sovereigns 

103 


I04  William  Pitt.  [1757- 

were  formally  allied  against  Prussia  by  the  Treaty  of 
St.  Petersburg  which  was  signed  ia^E#b«mry,  1757, 
b3rwhich  eacli^  the  Imperial  courts  agreed  to-f Or- 
nish eighty  thousand  men  against  Frederick ;  Eliza- 
beth engaged  herself  to  continue  hostilities  until 
Silesia  and  Glatz  were  recovered  by  Maria  Theresa, 
while  Austria  was  to  pay  an  annual  subsidy,  and,  by 
an  understanding  not  incorporated  in  the  treaty,  was 
to  try  and  secure  Courland  for  Russia.  ^  By  the 
Treaty  ofStocRholm  Sweden  joined  the  coajltionland^" 
promised  twenty  thousand  men.  The  second  Treaty 
of  Versailles  between  France  and  AustriaJSLas  signed 
on  May  1^-1757*  .  Louis  promised  an  annual  subsidy, 
one  hundred  and  five  thousand  men,  and  the  pay  of 
ten  thousand  German  mercenaries.  Maria  Theresa 
promised  eighty  thousand  men.  .  France  was  to  be 
rewarded  by  the  cession  of  towns  and  ports  in  i the 
Netherlands.  The  details  of  the  scheme  for  the  par- 
tition of  Frederick's  possessions  show  that  the  inten- 
tion of  the  two  Powers  was  to  reduc_e  Prussia  to 
the  rank  of  a  second-rate  German  electorate.  The 
great  European  league  was  joined  by  Bavaria,  the 
Elector  Palatine,  and  otherTjerman  Princes.  Den- 
mark and  the  Dutch  provinces,  noTvP'ithstahding  the 
pressure  of  England  and  Prussia,  remained  neutral. 

The  French  King's  assent  to  this  aUiance  was  one 
of  the  most  momentous  resolves  in  history.  Not 
content  with  his  quarrel  with  England,  with  the  de- 
fence of  his  great  possessions  in  the  East  and  West 
against  a  Power  whose  naval  predominance  was 
clearly  understood,  Louis  entered  into  the  Continen- 
tal war  which  was  destined  to  drain  the  resources  of 


1761]  Pitt's   War  Ministry.  105 

his  country  and  to  rob  his  armies  of  their  unequalled 
reputation.  The  reward  was  great,  but  it  was  dis> 
tant  and  problematical.  Yet  in  May,  1757,  it  may 
well  have  seemed  certain  that  the  great  European 
countries  would  be  successful  in  crushing  Great 
Britain  and  Prussia.  The  war  had  opened  with  un- 
expected glory ;  England  had  been  defeated  on  her 
own  element  and  in  America,  while  her  politicians 
seemed  divided  and  irresolute.  On  the  continent, 
although  the  Prussian  army  had  been  increased, 
through  the  forced  enlistment  of  Saxons,  to  two 
hundred  thousand  men,  the  allies  could  in  tl\eory 
command  three  times  that  number,  and  during  this 
year  did  actually  place  in  the  field  three  hundred  and 
four  thousand.*  So  great  a  superiority  in  numbers 
was  set  off  against  Frederick's  brilliant  generalship. 
The  population  of  Prussia  was  only  five  millions,  of 
Great  Britain  not  more  than  nine  millions,  while 
that  of  France  and  her  allies  was  one  hundred  mil- 
lions. Kaunitz  had  everything  to  gain  and  nothing 
to  lose  by  the  French  alliance,  which  was  the  tri- 
umph of  his  diplomacy  ;  Louis  pledged  his  resources, 
and  burdened  his  army,  but  he  may  reasonably  have 
believed  that  his  kingdom  was  equal  to  the  double 
strain  of  war  by  land  and  sea,  and  if  the  plans  of  the 
alliance  had  been  completely  successful  the  position 
of  France  in  Europe  would  have  been  as  great  as  in 

*  Bestujef,  the  Russian  Chancellor,  made  the  following  calculation 
of  the  forces  at  the  disposal  of  the  great  European  Powers  in  1756  : 
Russia,  331,222  men  in  all,  130,000  effectives  available  for  offensive 
purposes  in  Europe;  France,  211,000;  Austro-Hungary,  139,000; 
Saxony,  18,000;  Poland,  16,000;  Prussia,  145,000;  and  Great 
Britain,  10,000  for  Continental  war. — Rambaud,  Russes  et  Prusses. 


io6  William  Pitt. 


[1757- 


the  days  of  Louis  XIV.  With  Prussia  destroyed, 
how  long  delayed  would  be  any  threatening  union 
of  Germany,  and  how  powerful  would  be  the  House 
of  Bourbon,  with  France,  Spain,  and  the  Netherlands 
under  its  rule.  With  the  ambition  of  aggrandise- 
ment there  were  mixed  considerations  of  religion. 
The  two  Catholic  Powers  were  united  against  the 
Protestant  kingdoms,  and  were  aided  by  the  North- 
ern Empire  which  was  guardian  of  another  Ortho- 
doxy. Though  it  would  be  an  error  to  lay  too  much 
stress  on  the  religious  aspect  of  this  contest,  yet  as 
a  fact  the  Roman  and  Greek  Churches  made  war 
against  the  common  enemy  of  Protestantism,  which 
stood  for  the  disintegrating  power  of  free  thought. 
The  division  of  Europe,  apparently  the  accident  of 
diplomatic  chance,  was  in  reality  a  division  between 
the  progressive  and  reactionary  states.  The  motives 
which  urged  Louis,  Maria  Theresa,  and  Elizabeth 
were  the  ruling  forces  in  the  international  system 
which  was  drawing  near  its  end  —  they  were  motives 
based  upon  dynastic  considerations  and  the  will  of 
princes.  England  and  Prussia  on  the  other  hand 
were  animated  by  the  spirit  of  nationality,  the  one 
fighting  for  the  expansion  of  her  race,  the  other  for 
her  very  existence  as  a  nation.  When  Louis  made 
his  choice,  he  signed  the  death  warrant  of  his  own 
dynasty.  Louis  XIV.,  by  his  wars,  made  the  ancient 
monarchy  a  glory  to  the  French  people  ;  Louis  XV., 
by  his  wars,  made  it  a  byword  and  a  reproach. 

The  Government  of  France  had  sunk  to  the  lowest 
level.  The  weak  and  ignoble  King,  incompetent  to 
govern,  irresolute  in  judgment,  slothful  in  execution, 


17613  Pitt's   War  Ministry,  107 

was  governed  by  his  mistress,  Madame  de  Pompa- 
dour. It  was  she  who  had  diverted  him  from  the 
wise  course  of  devoting  all  his  power  to  the  contest 
with  England  ;  her  pride  desired  an  association  with 
Maria  Theresa,  and  though  Frederick  had  made 
many  attempts  to  purchase  her  influence  she  was  as 
devoted  an  enemy  to  the  Prussian  King  as  Maria 
Theresa  herself.  Her  malign  influence  on  the  des- 
tiny of  France  acted  not  only  by  the  policy  she  had 
induced  Louis  to  adopt,  but  throughout  the  war  she 
changed  Ministers  and  commanders  at  her  will,  and 
by  a  perverse  fortune  chose  her  favourites,  in  almost 
every  case,  from  the  incompetent.  The  whims  of 
a  courtesan  directed  the  fate  of  nations.  On  the 
threshold  of  war  disastrous  changes  were  introduced. 
The  naval  department  since  1754  had  been  under 
Machault,  who  realised  the  necessity  of  strengthen- 
ing the  instrument  of  sea-power,  and  had  by  rapid 
building  raised  the  navy  to  sixty  ships  of  the  line, 
with  thirty-one  frigates.  By  the  Pompadour's  influ- 
ence he  was  dismissed  in  1757,  and  succeeded  by 
Moras,  who  had  bought  the  succession.  The  favour- 
ite also  expelled  Argenson,  a  capable  and  experi- 
enced War  Minister,  the  reversion  of  whose  office 
had  been  bought  by  the  Marquis  de  Paulmy,  a 
young  man  of  thirty-four  with  no  knowledge  of  his 
new  duties.  **  It  was  soon  seen,"  wrote  Bernis,  *'  that 
the  hands  which  held  the  reins  of  the  War  Office 
and  the  Marine,  were  too  feeble ;  confusion  and 
licence  reigned  supreme   in   these  departments."  * 

*  Memoir e  de  Bernis,  cited  by  Perkins,  France  under  Louis  XV., 
ii.,  89. 


io8  William  Pitt,  [1757- 

The  system  on  which  the  French  army  was  admin- 
istered was  as  bad  as  the  system  of  taxation ;  each 
company  was  organised  and  paid  by  its  captain,  with 
the  result  that  the  soldiers  were  ill-paid,  ill- clad,  and 
ill-fed.^  Promotion  was  the  perquisite  of  rank,  not 
the  reward  of  service,  and  many  boys  of  seventeen 
were  colonels  of  regiments.  The  chief  commands 
were  given  to  the  Pompadour's  favourites,  who  was 
as  powerful  in  France  as  Frederick  was  in  Prussia  and 
as  Pitt  in  England.  If  there  had  been  in  France  a 
government  even  as  efficient  and  disinterested  as 
that  of  Russia  and  Austria  at  this  time,  the  result  of 
the  war  must  have  been  different ;  the  demomlisation 
of  thtti-  chi^  antagonist  was  the  safety  of  England 
and  Prussia.  — •^ 

It  is  on  his  conduct  of  the  war  that  Pitt's  fame 
rests.  During  four  years  his  will  directed  the  Eng- 
lish forces,  and  when  he  resigned  office  his  country 
had  risen  to  a  position  which  was  greater  than  any 
of  which  Elizabeth  or  Cromwell  had  dreamed.  The 
expansion  of  England  had  proceeded  steadily  from 
the  days  of  the  great  Tudor  Queen  ;  her  naval  pre- 
dominance had  been  established  under  Cromwell, 
and  constantly  strengthened ;  her  armies  in  the 
struggle  with  France  had  won  great  glory  under 
William  and   Marlborough ;    her  wealth  and   com- 

*  The  officers  were  the  bane  of  the  French  army.  De  Broglie  wrote 
of  their  entire  ignorance  of  military  details.  Their  luxury  was  inor- 
dinate. Richelieu  when  only  colonel  required  72  mules  for  his  per- 
sonal baggage  and  35  horses  for  his  own  use.  One  captain  took  14 
horses  and  5  valets  !  Contrast  this  with  Frederick's  well-known  reg- 
ulations, forbidding  even  a  silver  spoon.  His  own  retinue  was  not 
so  large  as  that  of  a  French  general. 


1761]  Pitfs   War  Ministry.  109 

merce  were  rapidly  increasing,  and  were  both  cause 
and  consequence  of  sea-power.  But  the  prospect  of 
her  colonial  empire  was  clouded  by  the  rivalry  of 
France;  it  was  not  yet  decided  beyond  dispute 
whether  the  French  or  the  English  race  should  con- 
trol North  America  and  the  Indies.  England  en- 
joyed the  immeasurable  advantage  of  predominant 
power  on  the  sea,  but  she  had  enjoyed  that  advant- 
age in  previous  wars  against  France  which  had  ended 
indecisively.  In  the  war  which  ended  in  the  Peace 
of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  **  the  British  naval  forces,  without 
any  rivals,  passed  unmolested  over  the  seas.  In  one 
year  they  are  said  to  have  taken  from  French  com- 
merce ^7,000,000  sterling.  Yet  this  sea-power,  which 
might  have  seized  French  and  Spanish  colonies, 
made  few  conquests  from  want  of  unity  and  persist- 
ence in  the  direction  given  to  it."  *  In  the  unity 
and  persistence  of  his  direction  of  naval  power,  Pitt 
has  never  been  surpassed  by  any  statesman,  and  no 
one  until  his  day  realised  how  mighty  a  weapon  the 
fleet  may  be.  His  comprehensive  mind  took  in  the 
whole  world,  and  other  nations  perceived  for  the  first 
time  that  the  British  navy  could  simultaneously  de- 
fend the  British  shores  and  attack  the  enemies'  dis- 
tant maritime  possessions  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 
Xhe  main  plan  of  naval  policy  under  Pitt  and  Anson 
is  clear.  A  strong  fleet  watched  Brest  and  the 
other  Atlantic  ports,  while  another  lay  near  Gibral- 
tar to  prevent  the  Toulon  fleet  either  joining  that  of 
Brest  or  conveying  reinforcements  to  America ;  on 

*  Lapeyrouse-Benfils,  Hist,  de  la  Marine  Francaise^  cit.  Mahan, 
Infitience  of  Sea-Power^  p.  280. 


no  William  Pitt. 


[1757 


these  depended  the  defence  of  England,  and  both 
fleets  were  severely  tested  during  the  war.  The  im- 
portant islands  of  Guadaloupe  and  Martinico  were  a 
great  source  of  strength  to  France,  and  for  the  pro- 
tection of  trade  against  the  numerous  French  priva- 
teers there  were  British  squadrons  at  the  Jamaica 
and  Leeward  Islands'  stations.  These  stations  were 
reinforced  by  Pitt  during  his  first  Ministry,  as  also 
was  Admiral  Watson  who  commanded  in  the  East 
Indies.  In  America,  the  fleet  used  the  harbours  of 
New  York  and  Halifax,  while  the  French  possessed 
only  one  base,  Louisburg,  on  the  Atlantic.  Quebec, 
though  regarded  as  impregnable  from  the  sea,  was 
unavailable  during  the  winter,  and  when  Louisburg 
was  reduced  it  was  impossible  for  the  Canadians  to 
look  for  further  assistance  from  the  sea.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  defence  of  England  by  the  blockade  of 
Toulon  and  Brest,  and  the  offensive  operations 
against  the  naval  strongholds  of  France,  the  fleet 
was  used  from  time  to  time  in  bombardments  of 
French  coast  towns  which  were  intended  to  draw  off 
French  troops  from  the  German  war. 

What  is  most  of  all  remarkable  in  Pitt  as  a  War 
V"  ^Minister  is  that  victory  never  relaxed  his  efforts  ;  the 
achievement  of  one  success  led  him  to  plan  another  ; 
his  designs  grew  wider,  his  efforts  more  strenuous. 
When  he  came  into  office  his  mind  was  fixed  upon 
the  recovery  of  what  England  had  lost,  but  each  fol- 
lowing success  led  him  to  prosecute  the  war  on  a 
wider  scale.  He  began  by  offering  Gibraltar  in  or- 
der to  secure  Spain  as  an  ally  against  France ;  he 
ended  by  counselling  his  sovereign   to   make  war 


1761]  Pitt's   War  Ministry,  iii 

against  both  Spain  and  France.  He  began  with  the 
conviction  that  England  must  restrict  the  contest  to 
the  sea  or  her  efforts  would  be  too  great ;  he  ended 
by  waging  strenuous  war  upon  the  continent,  as  well 
as  against  all  French  colonial  possessions.  He  was 
the  first  to  realise  the  strength  and  resources  of  his 
country,  and  the  readiest  to  expend  both  blood  and 
treasure  for  the  great  national  objects  he  pursued. 
An  insatiable  ambition,  a  sublime  courage,  made 
him  the  inspiring  genius  of  the  British  arms,  but  he 
added  to  these  heroic  qualities  an  untiring  industry 
in  his  ministerial  ofifice,  a  strong  will  which  coerced 
the  Admiralty  and  War  Ofifice  into  dispatch  and  or- 
der, and  drew  from  every  servant  of  the  nation  his 
proper  service.  When  experience  of  command  had 
brought  out  Pitt's  power  of  action,  and  he  had 
grown  to  his  full  stature  in  the  eyes  of  the  world, 
his  name  became  an  inspiration  to  every  British  sol- 
dier and  sailor,  and  as  was  said  at  the  time,  no  man 
ever  entered  his  closet  who  did  not  come  out  of  it  a 
braver  man.  It  will  not  be  possible  in  these  pages 
to  give  more  than  a  summary  account  of  the  cam- 
paigns of  the  war,  but  the  barest  outline  of  events 
will  show  the  magnitude  of  the  task  Pitt  had  upon 
his  shoulders.  On  the  continent  he  could  trust 
Prince  Ferdinand,  and  his  main  duty  was  to  find 
men  and  money  for  that  Prince  and  an  annual  sub- 
sidy for  Frederick.  In  the  Indian  war  he  could  do 
nothing  more  than  assist  by  reinforcements.  But  the 
direction  of  the  fleets,  of  the  numerous  campaigns 
in  America,  of  the  conquests  in  other  parts  of  the 
globe,  came  immediately  under  Pitt's  cognisance  and 


112  William  Pitt. 


[1757- 


will ;  the  Parliamentary  orator,  almost  entirely  with- 
out experience  of  administration,  was  faced  by  the 
most  absorbing  and  critical  problems  of  complex  ad- 
ministration and  strategical  decision. 

There  are  many  traditional  stories  illustrating 
Pitt's  dictatorial  but  singularly  effective  manner  of 
infusing  energy  into  the  Government  departments. 
The  best  contemporary  evidence  is  in  the  following 
passage  from  the  manuscript  memoirs  of  Sir  George 
Colebrooke,  a  merchant  and  contractor. 

"  More  than  once  I  was  summoned  to  the  Treasury  to 
give  an  account  of  the  state  of  the  provisions,  and  of  the 
money,  for  the  Army,  Mr.  West  giving  for  reason  that 
Mr.  Pitt  threatened  the  Duke  (of  Newcastle)  that  if  at 
any  time  a  want  of  either  should  be  found,  he  would  im- 
peach him  in  the  ensuing  session General 

Harvey  waiting  on  Mr.  Pitt  to  take  his  leave,  Mr.  Pitt 
asked  him  whether  he  had  obtained  everything  he 
wanted,  and  the  General  answered,  not.  Mr.  Pitt  de- 
sired him  to  enumerate  what  he  wanted  and  immediate- 
ly rang  his  bell  for  Mr.  Wood,  who  in  the  names  of  the 
different  Boards  signified  to  their  officers  His  Majesty's 
commands  for  the  despatch  of  what  was  required,  and 
in  four  days  General  Harvey  had  in  readiness  what  he 
had  been  as  many  months  soliciting." 

The  course  of  the  war  during  1/57  gave  little  hope 
of  the  future  triumph^  of  Great  Britain.  The  minis- 
terial interregnum*  was  responsible  for  a  Jack  of 
effectiveness  and  combination  in  the  use  of  the  naval 
resources  of  the  country  which,  if  it  had  continued, 
would  have  made  the  war  a  repetition  of  the  last. 
The  blockade  of  French  ports  was  not  effectively 


Copyright 


THE  EARL  OF  BUTE. 

FROM  THE  PAINTING  BY  SIR  JOSHUA  REYNOLDS. 


Gibbings  &  Co. 


1761]  Pitt's    War  Ministry.  113 

carried  out,  and  during  the  first  four  months  of  the 
year  Beausremont  sailed  for  Louisburg,  De  la  Motte 
for  the  same  port,  D'Ache,  with  Lally's  troops,  for 
the  East  Indies,  and  Kersaint  for  the  West  Indies 
by  the  west  coast  of  Africa.  All  these  squadrons 
arrived  without  mishap  at  their  destinations,  with 
the  resailt  that  British  operations  were  delayed. 
This  was  perhaps  the  most  ominous  incident  of  the 
year.  On  the  other  hand.  Parliament  had  shown  a 
ready  disposition  to  provide  the  supplies  necessary 
for  a  vigorous  war :  the  total  amount  granted  for  the 
year  was  ^8,350,325,  which  included  provision  for 
fifty-five  thousand  seamen,  and  eighty  thousand  land 
forces,  and  a  sum  of  ^575,056  for  foreign  subsidies 
and  the  pay  of  foreign  troops.  The  last  amount 
included  ;^200,ooo  **  for  assisting  his  Majesty  in 
forming  and  maintaining  during  the  present  year,  an 
army  of  observation,  for  the  just  and  necessary  de- 
fence of  his  Majesty's  electoral  dominions  ;  .  .  .  . 
and  towards  enabling  his  Majesty  to  fulfil  his  en- 
gagements with  the  King  of  Prussia,  for  the  security 
of  the  Empire  against  the  attacks  of  foreign  armies." 
The  sum  for  the  services  of  the  year  included  ;^  1,000,- 
000  on  account,  to  enable  his  Majesty  to  defray  any 
extraordinary  expenses  of  the  war.  The  last  was 
proposed  during  Lord  Waldegrave's  nominal  Minis- 
try, on  the  day  on  which  the  news  of  Frederick's 
victory  of  Prague  arrived  in  London.  Pitt  was  in- 
clined to  oppose  it  because  the  gift  was  offered  with- 
out restriction  ;  if  it  was  to  be  confined  to  Great 
Britain  and  America,  he  would  consent  to  give  a 
million,  but  now  this  might  be   dispensed   to  the 


114  William  Pitt,  [1757- 

troops  of  Hanover,  though  we  had  ah'eady  given 
them  ;^200,ooo.  The  King  of  Prussia  was  worth 
subsidising;  but  he  dreaded  the  war  being  trans- 
ferred to  Flanders  —  he  had  rather  face  it  in  Ger- 
many.* This  was  significant  of  Pitt's  future  policy, 
but  it  was  some  time  before  he  really  threw  himself 
into  a  German  war.  As  a  matter  of  fact  Pitt  him- 
self had  the  spending  of  the  million,  and  within  a 
few  weeks  of  his  return  to  office  ^100,000  was  sent 
to  Cumberland,  to  feed  his  beaten  army,  and  ^20,- 

000  to  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse.  ''This  concession," 
he  writes  to  Grenville,  "  I  have  judged  it  advisable 
to  make  upon  the  grounds  of  a  fatal  necessity  .  .  . 

1  trust  you  and  Lord  Temple  will  be  of  opinion, 
upon  fully  weighing  the  whole  extensive  considera- 
tion, that  I  have  not  done  wrong."  t  Events  shaped 
Pitt's  policy,  and  although  the  total  result  of  the 
campaigning  in  1757  was  discouraging,  yet  before 
the  year's  close  the  fundamental  principles  of  his 
war  measures  clearly  emerge. 

In  the  last  chapter  an  account  was  given  of  the 
three  expeditions  in  America  in  1755.  During  1756 
the  French  gained  further  advantages.  The  Mar- 
quis de  Montcalm  arrived  in  May  to  take  command 
of  the  French  forces.  He  was  an  able  and  energetic 
general,  of  chivalrous  bravery,  a  leader  who  endeared 
himself  to  his  men  by  his  great  qualities.  His  is 
the  most  shining  and  almost  the  only  heroic  figure 
that  appears  in  the  French  ranks  throughout  the 
war-.      The  forces  at  his  disposal  consisted  of  four 

*y^QX'{>o\t^ 5  Memoirs  of  George  II.,  iii.,  16-18. 
f  Grenville  Papers  (Aug.  11,  1757),  i.,  206. 


jccnlailfk. 


MT.  29. 


1761]  Pitt 's   War  Ministry.  1 1 5 

thousand  French  regulars,  two  thousand  Canadian 
regulars,  and  the  native  Canadian  Militia.  His  hope 
of  ultimate  success  could  be  based  only  on  the  rela- 
tive advantage  of  his  position  ;  with  Montreal  as  his 
centre  he  could  defend  without  great  difficulty  both 
Lake  Ontario  and  Lake  Champlain.  The  English 
on  the  other  hand  "  were  forced  to  act  on  the  cir- 
cumference of  a  vast  semi-circle,  in  a  labyrinth  of 
forests  without  roads,  and  choked  with  every  kind  of 
obstruction."*  Lord  Loudoun  arrived  in  July,  1756, 
to  take  up  the  English  command  with  a  force  which 
Pitt  had  described  as  a  '*  scroll  of  paper  " ;  he  dis- 
patched Webb  with  the  44th  regiment  to  strengthen 
Fort  Oswego,  and  resolved  to  attack  Ticonderoga 
himself.  But  Montcalm  captured  and  burnt  Fort  Os- 
wego before  Webb  reached  it,  and  before  Loudoun's 
attack  on  Ticonderoga  was  delivered  the  French 
commander  had  returned  to  the  defence  of  that  po- 
sition, and  witli  him  had  a  force  of  five  thousand 
men,  which  made  the  English  advance  impossible. 
The  loss  of  Oswego  was  a  serious  blow,  as  it  was  the 
one  place  of  arms  that  threatened  the  communica- 
tions of  the  French  with  their  chain  of  fortresses  in 
the  West.  The  campaign  of  1757  produced  no  bet- 
ter results  than  that  of  the  previous  year,  but  at 
least  showed  a  bolder  design.  Loudoun  was  anxious 
to  attack  Louisburg,  and  the  seven  battalions  Pitt 
had  added  to  Newcastle's  estimates  for  the  Ameri- 
can service  were  sent  to  Halifax,  to  be  used  in  this 
expedition.  The  whole  scheme  however  ended  in 
ignominious  failure  ;    Loudoun  took  five  thousand 

*Parkman,  Montcalm  and  Wolfe ^  i.,  418. 


1 1 6  William  Pitt, 


[1757- 


men  to  Halifax,  where  he  was  joined  by  Admiral 
Holbourne  in  the  middle  of  July,  but  there  he 
learned  that  the  French  had  twenty-one  sail  of  the 
line  at  Louisburg  and  a  garrison  of  seven  thousand. 
The  English  fleet  was  smaller  by  two  or  three  of  the 
line,  the  season  was  so  advanced  that  a  long  siege 
was  out  of  the  question,  and  the  general,  without 
attempting  an  attack,  sailed  back  with  his  army  to 
New  York.  Pitt  was  very  angry  with  Loudoun,  but 
the  real  cause  of  failure  was  the  delay  in  dispatching 
Holbourne's  fleet,  and  in  the  following  year  Pitt  was 
careful  that  such  delay  should  not  be  repeated. 
While  Loudoun  was  at  Halifax,  Montcalm's  force  at 
Ticonderoga  attacked  Fort  William  Henry  on  Lake 
George  and  after  a  gallant  defence  the  garrison  capit- 
ulated. Thus  in  America  during  17.5,;^  there  was  no 
success  but  yet  another  serious  reverse.  -  'One  other 
danger  seriously  threatened  British  interests ;  Lou- 
doun, unfortunate  in  all  J:Jnings,  was  especially  so  in 
his  relation  with  the  American  authorities  and  ofifi- 
cers,  and  this  question  also  received  Pitt's  attention 
before  the  real  campaign  began. 

In  another  part  of  the  Empire  too  remote  at  that 
time  to  attract  close  attention  in  England,  but  not 
so  distant  as  to  escape  the  vigilance  of  Pitt,  the  con- 
test between  French  and  English  wore  another  as- 
pect. At  the  close  of  1755,  Clive  arrived  in  India  to 
take  up  the  Governorship  of  Fort  St.  David  in  the 
Carnatic.  When  the  news  of  the  tragedy  of  the 
Black  Hole  reached  Madras  he  was  chosen  to  com- 
mand the  land  forces  in  the  expedition  sent  to  re- 
lieve Calcutta,  while  Admiral  Watson  commanded 


r 


E  ••ElStl  »0S10 


1761]  Pitt's   War  Ministry.  117 

the  squadron  of  four  sail  of  the  line.  Clive  quickly 
subdued  the  Nabob,  Surajah  Dowlah,  and  in  March, 
1757,  he  captured  the  important  French  settlement 
of  Chandernagore  near  Calcutta.  Then  followed  the 
famous  conspiracy  with  Meer  Jaffier  against  the  Na- 
bob, and  the  victory  of  Plassey  (June  23,  1757) 
which  made  the  East  India  Company  virtually  sov- 
ereign in  Bengal.  The  brief  campaign  had  made  the 
England  of  Clive  a  greater  power  in  India  than  the 
France  of  Dupleix  had  ever  been. 

The  Continental  campaign  in  the  earlier  part  of 
1757  pointed  to  the  early  success  of  the  coalition 
against  Frederick.  The  situation  of  Prussia  was 
alarming.  Two  Austrian  armies  under  Browne  and 
Daun  threatened  Silesia,  the  Russian  force  under 
Apraxin  was  preparing  to  attack  East  Prussia,  while 
before  the  end  of  March  two  French  armies  number- 
ing together  one  hundred  thousand  crossed  the 
Rhine  and  marched  towards  Hanover.  Frederick 
determined  to  attack  the  Austrians  himself,  and  left 
the  defence  of  East  Prussia  and  Pomerania  to  Leh- 
waldt,  while  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  arrived  in  April 
to  take  command  of  a  mixed  force  of  sixty  thousand, 
which  was  to  defend  Hanover.  The  King  himself 
advanced  into  Bohemia  and  attacked  Marshal 
Browne  at  Prague,  on  May  6th ;  the  Austrian  army 
was  defeated  and  forced  to  take  refuge  within  the 
city  of  Pragu^.  Frederick  lost  eighteen  thousand 
while  his  enemy  lost  twenty-four  thousand.  Daun, 
the  famous  Fabian  general,  who  was  perhaps  more 
successful  against  Frederick  than  any  other  com- 
inander  in  this  war,  marched  to  the  relief  of  Prague. 


ii8  William  Pitt, 


[1757- 


His  army  had  increased  to  sixty  thousand  and  Fred- 
erick judged  that  it  was  necessary  himself  to  leave 
the  army  besieging  Prague,  in  order  to  defeat  Daun. 
At  Kolin,  with  the  advantages  both  of  numbers  and 
of  position  against  them,  the  Prussians  suffered  a 
disastrous  defeat,  losing  fourteen  thousand  men  and 
many  cannon.  Frederick  managed  the  retreat  with 
success  ;  on  June  20th  the  siege  of  Prague  was  raised, 
Bohemia  was  abandoned,  and  the  Prussians  retired 
upon  Saxony. 

In  East  Prussia  Lehwaldt  was  outnumbered.  The 
Russians  advanced  steadily  and  on  August  30th, 
Apraxin  won  the  victory  of  Jaegersdorf. 

Meantime,  the  French  had  advanced  under  Mar- 
shal D'Estrees,  and  on  July  26th  Cumberland  was 
defeated  at  Hastenbeck,  and  nearly  the  whole  of 
Hanover  and  Brunswick  was  overrun  by  the  French. 
It  was  suggested  that  nine  thousand  men  in  readiness 
at  Chatham  should  be  sent  to  Cumberland,  but  Pitt 
successfully  opposed  this.  Richelieu,  who  displaced 
D'Estrees,  could  not  but  overpower  Cumberland, 
and  on  September  8th,  the  famous  convention  of 
Kloster-Severn  was  arranged,  by  which  it  was  agreed 
that  the  auxiliary  troops  from  Hesse,  Brunswick,  and 
Saxe-Gotha  should  return  to  their  respective  coun- 
tries, while  the  Hanoverian  army  retired  beyond  the 
Elbe.  The  effect  of  this  agreement  was  to  leave 
Hanover  to  the  French,  and  to  free  the  French  army 
for  aggression  against  Frederick.  Cumberland  had 
no  choice  but  to  make  this  agreement,  and  eventual- 
ly it  proved  of  great  advantage  to  the  Anglo-Prus- 
sian cause,  but  it  was  regarded  by  Frederick  as  a 


liOBERT  LORD  CLIVE 


1761]  Pitt's    War  Mmistry.  119 

base  surrender.  The  Duke  was  recalled,  and  the 
King  received  him  with  open  contempt.  When  the 
King  declared  that  he  had  given  Cumberland  no  or- 
ders for  such  a  treaty,  Pitt  replied  :  "  But  full  pow- 
ers, Sir,  very  full  powers."  *  HTt  was  an  act  of  great 
magnanimity  to  offer  any  defence  for  the  man  who 
had  been  his  avowed  enemy,  but  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  Cumberland  was  harshly  treated.  King 
George  had  for  some  time  dallied  with  the  tempta- 
tion of  an  Hanoverian  neutrality,  and  on  August 
nth  had  sent  to  his  son  full  powers  to  conclude  a 
separate  peace  or  neutrality  on  behalf  of  the  Elector- 
ate. These  powers  were  given  by  the  King  as  Elec- 
tor, and  were  technically  no  concern  of  the  British 
Ministers.  The  situation  created  by  the  conven- 
tion was  however  a  matter  of  direct  British  concern, 
as  Frederick  in  plain  terms  remonstrated  against  the 
policy  of  Hanoverian  neutrality  as  a  desertion  of 
Prussia.  The  Ministers  formally  declared  that  Great 
Britain  hg|d  no  part  in  the  convention,  and  early  in 
October  the  Cabinet  on  the  suggestion  of  Pitt,  de- 
cided that,  if  the  convention  should  be  repudiated, 
the  Electoral  army  should  be  taken  into  British  pay^ 
The  King  eventually Vepudiated  it,  defending  his 
action  on  the  technical  Vround  that  the  French  had 
infringed  its  terms.  Thoyincident  is  of  importance 
in  Pitt's  career.  It  was  arVued  at  the  time  that  this 
was  an  admirable  opportunity  for  Great  Britain  to 
quit  the  Continental  War ;  Pitt's  action  shows  that 

*In  1761,  Pitt  said  in  the  House  of  Commons,  "The  affair  of 
Kloster-Severn  was  only  an  Electoral  consideration,  and  on  that  oc- 
casion the  son  of  the  King  behaved  with  the  most  manly  and  filial 
piety."    Add.  MSS.  32932,  f.  74. 


I20  William  Pitt. 


[1757- 


he  was  determined  to  stand  by  the  Prussian  Alliance, 
although  he  was  not  yet  ready  to  send  an  English 
army  to  Hanover.  His  readiness  to  take  the  Elec- 
toral army  into  English  pay  won  him  the  confidence 
of  the  King ;  it  was  the  only  available  means  of  as- 
sisting Prussia  , and  .Pitt  meant  to  provide  a  more 
efficient  General  than  Cumberland.* 

Thus  the  first  months  of  Pitt's  administration  were 
months  of  disaster  in  Europe  and  in  America.  No 
wonder  that  Pitt  almost  despaired.  "  The  day  is 
come,"  he  wrote  to  Sir  Benjamin  Keene,  "  when  the 
very  inadequate  benefits  of  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht, 
the  indelible  reproach  of  the  last  generation,  are  be- 
come the  necessary,  but  almost  unattainable  wish 
of  the  present,  when  the  Empire  is  no  more,  the 
ports  of  the  Netherlands  betrayed,  and  the  Dutch 
Barrier  Treaty  an  empty  sound,  Minorca,  and  with 
it  the  Mediterranean,  lost,  and  America  itself  pre- 
carious." f  The  situation  was  immediately  met  by 
diplomacy  and  by  active  aggression.  Nothing  could 
be  better  calculated  to  restore  the  spirit  of  England 
than  a  change  from  ignominious  waiting  upon  the 
enemy  to  a  policy  of  attack,  and  Pitt  decided  to 
assist  Frederick's  movements  in  Germany  by  a  di- 
version against  the  French  coast,  and  to  prepare  for 
the  recovery  of  Minorca  by  seeking  an  alliance  with 
Spain.     Moved  also  by  his  constant  dread  of  the 

*  The  repudiation  is  argued  in  Flassan's  Diplomatie  Fran^aise,  t. 
vi.  pp.  98-109,  and  the  British  official  justification  is  given  in  Entick 
ii.  435-439.  The  most  informing  account  is  in  Ward's  Great  Brit- 
ain and  Hanover  (1899),  pp.  190-196,  and  in  Waddington's  La 
Guerre  de  Sept  Ans  (Paris,  1899),  pp.  470  seq. 

\  Chatham  Correspondence^  i.,  251. 


1761]  Pittas   War  Ministry,  121 

union  of  the  two  Bourbon  countries  against  Eng- 
land, he  wrote  to  Sir  Benjamin  Keene  (August  23, 
1757),  the  ambassador  at  Madrid,  making  large 
offers  '"'  in  order  to  engage  Spain,  if  possible,  to  join 
her  arms  to  those  of  his  Majesty,  for  the  obtaining 
a  just  and  honourable  peace,  and  mainly  for  recover- 
ing and  returning  to  the  Crown  of  England  the  most 
important  island  of  Minorca."  It  was  proposed, 
after  the  capture  of  Minorca,  to  exchange  Gibraltar 
for  that  island,  and  further  to  evacuate  all  estab- 
lishments made  on  the  Mosquito  Shore  and  in  the 
Bay  of  Honduras  since  the  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle. 
Particular  stress  was  laid  on  the  statement  that  on 
no  account  would  England  cede  Gibraltar  until 
Minorca  was  recovered.  The  proposed  alliance  was 
definitely  rejected  by  Spain.  Pitt  has  been  blamed 
for  his  willingness  to  cede  Gibraltar,  as  that  fortress 
is  undoubtedly  a  more  valuable  possession  to  Eng- 
land than  Minorca  ever  could  have  been.  But  there 
are  two  considerations  which  may  have  made  a 
Spanish  alliance  a  matter  of  great  importance.  The 
Spanish  navy  had  been  increased  to  forty-six  ships 
of  the  line  and  twenty-two  frigates,  which  was  a 
formidable  force ;  and  there  was  a  strong  French 
party  at  Madrid  which  at  any  moment  might  obtain 
power  and  restore  the  traditional  Bourbon  system. 
In  a  war  that  was  to  be  chiefly  maritime  and  to  be 
fought  for  the  New  World,  the  close  friendship  of 
the  country  which  was  still  the  greatest  territorial 
power  in  the  New  World  was  a  desirable  object  for 
either  France  or  England.  It  is  clear  from  his  di- 
spatch that  Pitt  feared  that  Spain  would  not  remain 


122  William  Pitt, 


[1757- 


neutral,  and  his  fear  is  confirmed  by  Keene's  answer. 
"You  appear  sufficiently  informed  of  the  present 
unfavourable  complexion  of  this  Court,"  writes  the 
ambassador  in  his  reply.  Notwithstanding  these 
considerations,  it  is  fortunate  for  Pitt's  fame  that  his 
offer  was  not  accepted.* 

Pitt's  first  military  scheme  met  with  little  more 
success  than  his  diplomatic  plan.  It  belonged  to  the 
most  questionable  part  of  his  war  policy,  the  attacks 
on  the JFrench  coa^_  He  equipped  a  powerful  fleet 
of  sixteen  sail  of  the  line  under  Hawke,  and  an  army 
of  ten  battalions  under  Sir  John  Mordaunt,  with  the 
object  of  attacking  Rochefort.  The  naval  and  mili- 
tary commanders  quarrelled,  and  the  total  result  of 
the  expedition  was  the  capture  of  the  small  island 
of  Aix  after  an  hour's  bombardment.  No  attack  on 
Rochefort  was  attempted,  and  the  whole  force  re- 
turned to  Spithead  a  month  after  its  setting  forth. 
A  commission  of  inquiry  and  a  war  of  pamphlets 
followed,  and  Pitt  declared  that  the  disappointment 
had  broken  his  heart.  He  showed  his  opinion  of 
the  officers  in  command  by  promoting  Wolfe,  who 
declared  that  Rochefort  would  have  been  taken  by 
five  hundred  men,  over  a  number  of  his  seniors. 

Cumberland  reached  London  from  Hanover  on 
October  I2th,  and  was  so  angered  by  the  King's 
reception  ("  Here  is  my  son  who  has  ruined  me  and 
disgraced  himself")  that  he  resigned  his  appoint- 
ment as  Captain-General.  He  was  succeeded  by 
Ligonier,  and  Lord  George  Sackville  was  appointed 

*  Pitt  intended  to  take  a  port  on  the  Barbary  coast  in  place  of  Gib- 
raltar.    Newcastle  to  Hardwicke,  Aug.  9,  1757.     Newcastle  Papers. 


MAJOR-QENERAL  JAMES  WOLFE. 


1761]  Pitt's   War  Ministry,  123 

Lieutenant-General  of  Ordnance.  The  centre  of 
interest  during  the  last  months  of  1757  was  in  Ger- 
many, where  Frederick,  after  the  disaster  of  Kolin 


and  Jaegersdorf,  was  to  battle  gloriously  against  in- 
calculable odds.  In  addition  to  the  Austrian  army 
which  had  taken  Breslau,  the  key  of  Silesia,  he  had 
to  meet  Soubise,  who  had  thirty-five  thousand 
French,  and  Prince  Hildburghausen's  detachment  of 
fifteen  thousand  Germans,  under  his  command,  while 
Richelieu  had  been  set  free  by  the  convention  of 
Kloster-Severn.  An  Austrian  detachment  under 
Haddick  threatened  Berlin  itself,  and  obtained  a 
large  ransom  from  the  city.  The  King  was  cheered 
ten  days  later  by  the  news  that  England  had  de- 
cided to  re-create  the  Hanoverian  army,  and  to 
request  that  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick  might  be 
granted  by  Frederick  as  General  of  the  same.  This 
decision  was  pleasing  to  Frederick ;  it  promised  a 
new  army  to  counteract  at  least  one  of  the  French 
forces,  and  it  showed  that  the  lesson  of  bad  general- 
ship had  been  learnt.  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick  was 
an  experienced  and  able  officer,  and,  above  all,  was 
likely  to  act  loyally  and  efificiently  with  Frederick 
himself  —  a  man  not  to  be  guided,  as  Cumberland 
had  been,  by  the  decision  of  Hanoverian  ministers 
rather  than  by  the  advice  of  the  greatest  living  com- 
mander. It  was  on  the  5th  of  November  that  Fred- 
erick defeated  the  Soubise-Hildburghausen  army  at 
the  battle  of  Rossbach,  a  battle  memorable  in  the 
history  of  Germany  as  the  first  in  which  a  French  army 
had  been  utterly  defeated  by  a  purely  German  general 
and  force,  and  decisive  in  the  Seven  Years'  War  as 


124  William  Pitt.  [1757- 

changing  the  French  advance  into  a  retreat,  and 
deHvering  Prussia  from  an  enemy  by  a  single  blow. 
After  Rossbach,  in  fact,  Frederick  had  no  more 
fighting  with  the  French,  and  henceforth  the  war 
was  divided  into  two  part Sj::::  the  Prussian_struggle 
with  Austria  and  Russia,  and  the  French  struggle 
with  England  and  Hanover.  Four  days  after  the 
battle,  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick  received  his  com- 
mission as  commander  of  the  Hanoverians,  and  on 
November  24th  announced  to  the  troops  at  Stade 
that  they  were  to  form  part  of  an  allied  army,  and 
to  be  no  longer  "  a  mere  army  of  observation."  On 
November  29th  he  attacked  the  nearest  French 
fortress  at  Harburg,  his  first  step  in  the  operations 
which  were  to  drive  Richelieu  beyond  the  Rhine. 
Pitt  received  the  news  of  Rossbach  on  November 
9th,  and  at  once  saw  its  importance.  Parliament 
was  to  meet  on  the  15th,  but  the  session  was  post- 
poned till  December  ist,  in  order  that  new  plans 
might  be  considered,  and  a  new  speech  from  the 
throne  composed. 

"  It  is  my  fixed  resolution  (said  the  King's  speech)  to 
apply  my  utmost  efforts  for  the  security  of  my  kingdoms, 
and  for  the  recovery  and  protection  of  the  possessions 
and  rights  of  my  crown  in  America  and  elsewhere  ;  as 
well  by  the  strongest  exertion  of  our  naval  force,  as  by 
all  other  methods.  Another  great  object,  which  I  have 
at  heart,  is  the  preservation  of  the  Protestant  Religion 
and  the  liberties  of  Europe  ;  and  in  that  view,  to  adhere 
to  and  encourage  my  allies  ....  The  late  signal  suc- 
cess in  Germany  has  given  a  happy  turn  to  affairs,  which 
it  is  incumbent  on  us  to  improve  ;  and  in  this  critical 


His  Serene  HigTinefs  FEILDrNTAXD 

])iike  of  lirtuxfwick  andLunenbtirgli. 


1761]  Pitt's   War  Ministry.  125 

conjuncture  the  eyes  of  all  Europe  are  upon  you.  In 
particular  I  must  recommend  it  to  you,  that  my  good 
brother  and  ally  the  King  of  Prussia,  may  be  supported 
in  such  a  manner,  as  his  magnanimity  and  zeal  for  the 
cause  deserve. 

It  was  not  Rossbach  which  led  Pitt  to  renounce 
the  convention  of  Kloster-Severn,  and  to  recommend 
the  appointment  of  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick  to  the 
command  of  the  re-established  army.  These  steps 
were  taken  before  the  battle  was  won,  but  the  vic- 
tory made  manifest  the  possibility  and  the  advan- 
tages of  figlitjng__France  onland  as  well  as  by,  sea. 
Frederick  became^a  popular  English  hero,  and  the 
House  of  Commons  agreed  with  only  one  dissentient 
voice  to  provide  pay  for  the  Hanoverian  army,_on 
the  understanding  that  the  force  was  to  be  under 
British,  control.  A  fresh  treaty  was  arranged  with 
P,r«ssia  and  was  signed  April  11,  1758,  by  which 
England  was  to  pay  ^670,000  to  Frederick,  and 
both  contracting  parties  promised  to  make  peace 
only  in  concert  and  mutual  agreement.  There  were 
altogether  six  treaties  between  England  and  Prussia 
from  January  16,  1756,  to  December  12,  1760.  The 
second  promised  a  subsidy  of  a  million,  which  was 
not  paid,  and  a  fleet  in  the  Baltic.  The  fleet  is  not 
mentioned  in  the  later  treaties,  but  altogether  a  sum 
of  ;^2,68o,ooo  was  paid  to  Frederick  in  subsidies. 
The  treaty  of  1758  contains  no  stipulation  that 
English  troops  should  be  sent  to  join  the  army  of 
Ferdinand,  but  a  declaration  appended  provides  that 
five  thousand  English  should  be  sent  to  garrison 
Embden. 


126  William  Pitt, 


[1757- 


The  declaration  also  contained  an  expression  of  re- 
gret that  the  King  could  not  send  a  British  fleet  to 
the  Baltic  as  Frederick  desired.  Pitt  indeed,  while 
anxious  to  assist  the  common  cause  by  reviving  the 
Hanoverian  army  and  supplying  Prussia  with  funds, 
hesitated  long  before  agreeing  to  send  English 
troops  to  Germany.  His  primary  object  was 
throughout  the  war  in  America  anHT^  on  th^_^eau 
His  speech  at  the  opening, ofThe  session,  of  which 
Horace  Walpole  gives  an  abstract,  affords  us  an  in- 
sight into  his  mind.*  The  failure  and  delay  at 
Rochefort  and  in  America  were  dwelt  on  with  bit- 
terness. "  Nothing  could  be  well  till  the  army  was 
subjected  to  the  civil  power ;  they  were  to  obey,  not 
to  reason."  Lord  Loudoun  was  ''  loaded  with  all 
the  asperity  peculiar  to  his  (Pitt's)  style."  He  had 
not  even  attempted  anything,  and  all  the  doors  in 
America  were  open  to  France.  A  panegyric  on 
Watson,  Pococke,  and  Clive  followed.  "  What  as- 
tonishing success  had  Watson  with  only  three  ships ! 
.  .  .  He  did  not  stay  to  careen  this  and  condemn 
that,  but  at  once  sailed  into  the  body  of  the  Ganges. 
He  was  supported  by  Clive,  that  man  not  born  for  a 
desk — that  heaven-born  General,  whose  magnanimity, 
determination,  and  execution  would  charm  a  king  of 
Prussia;  and  whose  presence  of  mind  astonished  the 
Indies !  "  A  significant  outburst  on  the  subject  of 
continental  measures  caused  Pitt  considerable  diffi- 
culty in  the  following  months.  He  declared  that  he 
meant  the  army  for  our  immediate  selves;  "  he  had 
never  been  against  continental  measures  when  prac- 


'^Memoirs  of  George  II.,  iii.,  88,  90. 


1761]  Pitt's   War  Ministry.  127 

ticable,  but  would  not  now  send  a  drop  of  our  blood 
to  the  Elbe,  to  be  lost  in  that  ocean  of  gore."  Pitt 
maintained  his  refusal  to  send  English  troops  for 
some  time,  but  he  soon  took  the  first  step  by  the 
dispatch  of  a  small  force  to  garrison  Embden.  The 
victories  of  Prince  Ferdinand  induced  him  to  go 
much  farther  in  that  direction  than  in  1757  he  be- 
lieved could  be  justified. 

The  suppHes  voted  for  1758  amounted  to  £\o,- 
486,457.  Foreign  subsidies  and  the  pay  of  foreign 
troops  absorbed  ;^  1,861,897,  which  included  the 
£^J0yQQO  paid  to  Frederick  ;  the  number  of  seamen 
was  raised  to  sixty  thousand,  and  of  the  land  forces 
to  86,500;  thirty  thousand  of  these  were  for 
Gibraltar  and  the  colonies,  and  including  the  force  on 
the  Irish  establishment,  the  total  of  the  army  was 
about  one  hundred  thousand  men.  Pitt's  plans  for 
the  year  were  a  repetition  of  the  attack  on  Louis- 
burg,  and  descents  on  the  French  coast.  But  he 
was  determined  to  avojd^  the  chiefcauses  of  the 
earlier  failure.  By  means  of  a  powerful  fleet  under 
Hawke  and  Boscawen  he  had  attempted  to  intercept 
the  French  squadron  returning  from  Louisburg  in 
the  previous  October,  but  the  admirals  had  missed 
their  enemy.  It  was  therefore  necessary  to  hurry  on 
the  preparations  for  the  fleet  entrusted  to  Boscawen, 
which  was  to  aid  in  the  attack.  Sir  Charles  Hardy 
sailed  early  in  January  for  Halifax,  to  take  com- 
mand of  the  squadron  which  had  wintered  at  that 
port  under  Colville,  with  orders  to  repair  off  Louis- 
burg as  soon  as  the  season  would  permit,  to  intercept 
any  French  supplies.     Boscawen  himself  sailed  on 


128  William  Pitt.  [1757- 

February  19th  with  a  very  powerful  fleet  of  twenty- 
three  of  the  line  and  eighteen  frigates.  Hawke,  with 
seven  of  the  line,  was  sent  to  block  up  the  ports 
in  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  and  Osborne,  with  fifteen  of 
the  line,  cruised  between  Cape  de  Galle  and  Cartha- 
gena  on  the  coast  of  Spain.  There  were  three 
French  squadrons  at  Brest,  Toulon,  and  Carthagena, 
all  under  orders  to  steal  away,  if  practicable,  for 
Louisburg.  De  la  Clue  had  sailed  from  Toulon  as 
early  as  December,  1757,  but  could  not  pass  the 
Straits.  This  year  the  Blockade  was  effective,  as 
both  Osborne  and  Hawke  won  valuable  victories. 

Pitt  by  dispatching  powerful  fleets  at  an  early 
date  had  secured  an  immense  advantage.  He  had 
cut  off  from  Louisburg  the  reinforcements,  of  which 
the  very  rumour  had  paralysed  Holbourne  and 
Loudoun  in  the  previous  year. 

In  America,  Pitt  had  appointed  Major-General 
Abercrombie  in  Loudoun's  place.  He  'removed  one 
of  Loudoun's  chief  difificulties  by  an  order  that  pro- 
vincial offlcers  shoufid  take  eqfual  rank  with  ofificers 
of  the  regular  army  according  to' grade,  and  made 
the  raising  of  men  an  easier  matter  by  his  financial 
arrangements.  His  Majesty,  wrote  Pitt,*  considered 
that  the  provinces  of  the  north  could  themselves 
raise  twenty  thousand  men  "  to  join  a  body  of  the 
King's  forces  for  invading  Canadajby  way  of  Crown 
Point,  and  carrying  war  into  the  heS-t  of  the  enemy's 
possessions."  The  King  would  provide  artillery, 
arms,  ammunition,  tents,  transport,  and  food. 

*  Pitt  to  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  Dec.  30,  1757,  Thack- 
eray's Life^  ii.,  421. 


1761]  Pitt's   War  Ministry,  129 

"  The  whole  therefore  that  his  Majesty  expects  and 
requires  from  the  several  provinces  is,  the  levying,  cloth- 
ing and  pay  of  the  men  ;  and  on  these  heads  also,  that- 
no  encouragement  may  be  wanting  to  this  great  and  sal- 
utary attempt,  the  King  is  further  most  graciously 
pleased  to  permit  me  to  acquaint  you,  that  strong  rec- 
ommendations will  be  made  to  Parliament  in  their  ses- 
sion next  year,  to  grant  a  proper  compensation  for  such 
expenses  as  above,  according  as  the  active  vigour  and 
strenuous  efforts  of  the  respective  provinces  shall  justly 
appear  to  merit."  ^"^ 

On  the  same  day  Pitt  wrote  the  Governor  of 
New  York  advising  boats  to  be  built  for  the 
transport  of  twenty-five  thousand  men  over  Lake 
George  to  be  ready  by  May  ist.  Abercrombie 
was  ^jtolead  against  Ticon/fleroga,  with  Brigadier 
Lord  Howe  as  second  in  command ;  to  command 
the^^land  forces  against  Louisburg  Pitt  chose  Am- 
herst, a  young  colonel,  who  was  made  Major  Gen- 
eral-t)ver  the  heads  of  many  seniors,  with  Wolfe 
as  one  of  his  three  Brigadiers ;  and  a  third-jcom- 
mand,  against  Fort  Q^uesn£*„was  given  to  Briga- 
dief~ToHtrFortes. 


Admiral  Boscawen  sailed  from  Halifax  on  May 
28th,  more  than  two  months  earlier  than  Holbourne 
had  sailed  on  the  same  errand  the  year  before.  His 
fleet  numbered  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven  sail, 
twenty-three  ships  of  the  line,  eighteen  frigates,  with 
a  total  of  nearly  fifteen  thousand  seamen  and  ma- 
rines, and  nineteen  hundred  and  four  guns.  The 
great  fleet  of  transports  had  nearly  twelve  thousand 
men  on  board,  all  British  regulars  except  five  hun- 


130  William  Pitt,  [1757- 

dred  provincial  rangers.*  Amherst  joined  the  fleet 
outside  Hahfax  Harbour  and  took  command  of  the 
army.  This  great  force  sailed  into  Gaberus  Bay, 
about  three  miles  west  of  Louisburg,  on  June  2d. 
Louisburg,  the  Dunkirk  of  America,  was  considered 
the  strongest  fortress  on  the  continent.f  So  strong 
did  the  position  appear  that  Boscawen  was  on  the 
verge  of  calling  a  council  of  war,  but  desisted  on  the 
advice  of  a  veteran  officer.  Captain  Fergusson,  who 

"  advised  the  admiral,  for  his  own  honour,  and  the  glory 
of  his  country,  to  exert  that  power,  with  which  he  was 
invested  ;  and  not  to  leave  it  to  the  uncertain  resolu- 
tions of  a  council  of  war,  which  had  been  so  fatal  at 
Minorca,  at  Rochefort,  and  even  at  Halifax,  to  the  dis- 
grace of  all  concerned  and  the  extreme  loss  of  the 
nation." 

Boscawen  was  convinced.  ''  Here,"  said  he,  "  I  will 
abide,  and  put  them  all  ashore,  and  cover  their  re- 
treat, if  they  thijik  proper  to  re-embark."  %  The 
French  forces, 'under  Dracour,  consisted  of  three 
thousand  and  eighty  regulars,  including  two  compa- 
nies of  artillery,  and  five  ships  of  the  line,  and  seven 
frigates,  with  three  thousand  men  on  board  and  five 
hundred  and  forty  guns  in  the  harbour.  There  were 
two  hundred  and  nineteen  cannon  mounted  on  the 
walls,  and  a  civilian  population  of  five  thousand  to  de- 
fend in  the  town.  A  landing  was  effected  by  Wolfe's 
brigadcLwithout  very  great  difficulty,  and  Amherst 

*  Beatson,  Naval  and  Military  Memoirs,  iii.,  note  121. 
f  There  is  an  excellent  description  of  the  place  and  siege  in  Park- 
man,  Montcalm  and  Wolfe,  ii.,  ch.  xix. 

\  Entick,  History  of  the  Late  War,  iii.,  224,  225, 


rhe  Hon^  E  DWARD  B  O  S  CAWEN.  AdSffa 
of  tlieBlue  Squadron.  ^ 


1761]  Pitt's    War  Ministry,  131 

laid  siege  to  the  fortress ;  Wolfe  silenced  the  Island 
battery  which  protected  the  entrance  to  the  harbour 
and  the  French  sank  four  large  ships  to  prevent 
Boscawen  from  entering.  Two  of  these  were  burned 
by  seamen,  who  rowed  into  the  harbour  by  night, 
and  as  this  opened  the  way  for  Boscawen  the  French 
werecornp£lkd-to-^*ipitulate^  July  28th. 

.bercrombie's  attack  on  Ticonderoga  did  not  meet 
with  equal  success.  He  himself  had  been  appointed 
through  political  influence,  and  had  neither  the  au- 
dacity nor  persistence  necessary  for  the  command  of 
such  an  expedition.  Pitt  intended  the  real  com- 
mand to  be  in  the  hands  of  the  young  Lord  Howe, 
whom  he  described  as  "  a  complete  model  of  mili- 
tary virtue,"  whose  brave  and  gay  spirit  made  him 
the  idol  of  the  entire  army.  Wolfe  called  him  ''  the 
noblest  Englishman  that  has  appeared  in  my  time, 
and  the  best  soldier  in  the  British  army."  The 
force  consisted  of  more  than  six  thousand  regulars, 
and  nine  thousand  provincials,  and  on  July  5th  they 
embarked  on  Lake  George  in  nine  hundred  bateaux 
and  one  hundred  and  thirty  whale  boats.  The  army 
landed  with  difficulty,  but  a  great  disaster  befel  them 
on  the  first  day,  when  Lord  Howe  was  killed  in  a 
skirmish.  "  In  Lord  Howe,"  wrote  a  contemporary, 
'•'•  the  soul  of  General  Abercrombie's  army  seems  to 
expire."  Montcalm  _at  Ticonderoga  had  three  thou- 
sand six  hundred  men ;  he  had  carefully  defended 
the  position  where  he  awaited  attack,  while  Aber- 
crombie  had  not  brought  his  artillery  to  the  front. 
The  English  general  was  liimself  a  mile  and  a  half 
to  the  rear  of  the  fighting,  and  sent  repeated  orders 


132  Wzlltam  Pitt.  [1757- 

for  frontal  attacks  by  the  infantry,  which  only  re- 
sulted in  terrible  loss.  After  losing  nearly  two 
thousand  men* he  ordered  a  retreat.  Pitt  very  pro- 
perly recalled  him  to  England  at  the  close  of  the 
campaign.  But  the  year  was  not  to  end  without 
victories  for  the  English  on  the  mainland.  Brad- 
street,  the  officer  who  had  carried  supplies  to  Fort 
Oswego,  persuaded  Abercrombie  to  give  him  three 
thousand  men,  chiefly  provincials,  for  an  attack  on 
Fort  Frontenac  ori_Lake_  Ontario.  By  way  of  the 
Mohawk  and  Onondaga  he  reached  the  place  where 
Fort  Oswego  had  stood,  crossed  the  lake,  and  sur- 
prised the  French  fort,  which  had  been  neglected. 
The  Governor  surrendered  and  all  the  French  ships 
on  the  lake  were  captured.  This  was  a  severe  blow 
as  it  cut  the_FrenchJine  of  communication  and  de- 


stroy:ei_tlie«^-SQvei^igtity_over  Lake  Ontario^^It 
lad  an  important  influence  on  the  fate  of  the  last 
expedition  of  the  year,  that  of  Forbes  against  Fort 
Duquesne. 

Forbes's  army  consisted  of  twelve  hundred  High- 
landers and  more  than  five  thousand  provincials  from 
the  Southern  Colonies,  with  a  detachment  of  Royal 
Americans,  who  were  largely  Germans  of  Pennsyl- 
vania under  German  officers.*  The  recruits  were 
very  different  from  those  of  the  northern  colonies, 
where  fighting  was  a  part  of  every  man's  experience, 
and  the  provincial  officers  were  for  the  most  part. 


*  Pitt  in  the  House  of  Commons  (February,  1756)  had  opposed 
the  enlistment  of  these  German  settlers  and  the  granting  of  commis- 
sions to  foreigners.  The  Agent  of  Massachusetts  supported  Pitt's 
opposition  by  a  petition. 


LOUISBOURQ  MEDALS  OF  1758.^ 


1761]  Pitt's   War  Ministry.  133 

according  to  Forbes  himself,  '*  an  extremely  bad 
collection  of  broken  innkeepers,  horse  jockeys,  and 
Indian  traders."  But  Forbes  was  a  soldier  of  un- 
conquerable determination  who  looked  into  all  details 
himself,  and  was  well  fitted  to  make  an  army  out  of 
a  mob.  Among  his  chief  officers  was  Cojonel  Wash-^ 
ington,  who  wished  the  expedition  to  take  the  Vir- 
ginian Road  to  Duquesne  which  Braddock  had 
used.  Forbes,  however,  decided  to  make  a  new  road 
through  the  forest  from  Pennsylvania.  The  fort  had 
been  the  centre  of  the  French  intrigues  with  the 
Indians  which  had  resulted  in  so  many  massacres 
and  marauding  expeditions  against  the  English  set- 
tled in  the  Western  frontier ;  but  Forbes's  task  was 
made  much  easier  by  the  neutrality  which  three  of 
the  Indian  tribes  were  persuaded  to  declare  in  No- 
vember. His  great  difficulty  was  in  making  the 
rxjad  over  "the—fftotifrtains,  and  he  was  further  im- 
ped e^'l53rlT^ayy^aia.  Bradstreet  had  delayed  the  /V 
supplies  intended  for  Fort  Duquesne  at  Frontenac,  \/fN 
and  when  the  French  realised  that  Forbes  would  Vi 
reach  them  they  blew  up  the  fortifications  and  evacu-^ 
ated  the  position.  Forbes  took  peaceful  possession 
on  November  25th,  and  planted  a  new  stockade, 
which  he  called  Pittsburg,  in  honour  of  the  illustri- 
ous minister.  Two  hundred  men  were  left  as  a 
garrison,Tack  of  provisions  making  a  large  garrison 
impossible,  and  the  force  returned  home.  Forbes 
himself  had  suffered  from  a  painful  disease,  and  he 
was  carried  on  a  litter  all  the  way  to  Philadelphia, 
where  he  died  in  the  following  March. 

By  way  of  one  more  assault  on  the  French  coast, 


<f 


^ 


\ 


134  William  Pitt.  [1757- 

an  "  enterprise "  (so  called  because  the  attempt 
against  Rochefort  had  made  the  name  "  expedition  " 
'  ridiculous)  was  planned  against  St.  Malo.  A  camp 
j^f  nearly  fourteen  thousand  men  was  formed  in  the 
Isle  of  Wight,  and  the  command  was  given  to  the 
Duke  of  Marlborough,  who  proved  himself  only 
the  shadow  of  a  great  name.  Two  fleets  were  as- 
sembled at  Spithead  —  the  larger,  of  twenty-two  of 
the  line,  under  Lord  Anson,  and  the  smaller  under 
Commodore  Howe.  Nothing  resulted  from  the  em- 
ployment of  this  great  force  beyond  the  burning  of 
a  few  privateers.  Marlborough  quickly  returned  to 
England  ;  Pitt  had  heard  of  Ferdinand's  success  at 
Crefeldt,  and  now  sent  nine  thousand  men  under 
Marlborough  and  Lord  George  Sackville  to  reinforce 
the  Prince.  Under  General  Bligh,  the  remainder  of 
Marlborough's  force  again  sailed  for  the  French 
coast.  The  harbour  of  Cherbourg  was  destroyed, 
and  some  guns  were  captured  which  were  afterwards 
paraded  through  London.  A  serious  disaster  befell 
Bligh  near  St.  Malo.  While  re-embarking  the 
troops  were  attacked  by  the  French  and  suffered 
heavily.  A  loss  of  seven  hundred  in  killed  and 
prisoners  cooled  Pitt's  ardour  for  these  expeditions, 
wlnclT  were  never  very  damaging  to  the  French. 
If  he  had  been  content  with  naval  bombardments 
he  would  have  secured  equal  results  at  less  expense, 
^^rdinand's  campaign  was  a  successful  one.  Dur- 
ing tlT^iv4ntei*-^h^e^'an3graA^e'^o^  Cassel  and 
the  Duke  of  Brunswick  made  preparations  for  de- 
serting the  cause  of  Prussia  and  Hanover,  but  their 
treaties  of  neutrality  with  France  were  not  ratified, 


17611  Pitt's    War  Ministry,  135 

and  they  remained  allies  of  Frederick  and  George. 
Clermont  was  appointed  to  take  Richelieu's  com- 
mand. 

The  army  he  commanded  was  in  wretched  con- 
dition, and  when  Ferdinand  with  the  Hanoverian 
army  advanced  in  February  the  French  fell  back 
and  crossed  the  Rhine  at  Wesel.  Ferdinand  fol- 
lowed and  forced  Clermont  to  give  battle  at  Crefeldt. 
The  French  were  forty-seven  thousand  against  thirty- 
three  thousand,  and  occupied  a  strong  position,  but 
Clermont  was. beaten  with  a  Ios&-jQf.fo.un  thousand, 
arid^Tompelled  to  continue  his  retreat.  Selle  Isle^ 
now  French  War  Minister,  recalled  Clermont  and 
sent  ContadesTXT^pabte' general,  to  take  command, 
while  Soubise  was  recalled  from  assisting  the  cam- 
paign against  Frederick  and  ordered  to  march  upon 
Hesse  through  Hanau.  In  order  to  counteract  this 
movement,  Ferdinand  recrossed  the  Rhine.  At  the 
beginning  of  his  campaign  he  had  sent  a  requisition 
to  the  British  Government  asking  for  a  detachment 
of  British  cavalry.  We  have  seen  that  Pitt  only 
agreed  to  send  five  thousand  men  to  garrison  Emb- 
den.  This  fortress  was  occupied  by  the  French 
until  March  19th,  when  the  garrison  was  ordered  to 
join  the  main  French  army  in  its  retreat  towards  the 
Rhine,  and  Commodore  Holmes  took  possession 
of  it.  The  way  was  now  open  for  the  dispatch  of 
British  troops,  and  the  success  of  Ferdinand  was  such 
that  Pitt  would  have  shown  an  unusual  apathy  if  he 
had  not  taken  full  advantage  of  it.  He  resolved 
to  support  the  Prince  in  every  possible  way,  anH 
henceforth  he  takes  up  the  Germaii_wax.^^^£^^^^^'^V 


136  William  Pitt.  [1757- 

as  Carteret  himself  might  have  done.  As  has  been 
mentioned,  on  their  return  from  the  St.  Malo  enter- 
prise Marlborough  and  Lord  George  Sackville  were 
sent  with  nine  thousand  men,  including  a  regiment 
of  Highlanders,  to  join  Ferdinand  at  Munster.  This 
i  was  about  six  months  after  Pitt's  declaration  that 
\  he  meant  the  army  for  our  immediate  selves,  and 
would  not  send  a  drop  of  English  blood  *'  to  the 
Elbe." 

Pitt,  on  the  advice  of  a  Quaker  named  Gumming, 
sent  a  small  squadron,  under  Gaptain  Marsh,  of  one 
ship  of  the  line,  one  of  fifty  guns,  a  frigate  and  a 
sloop,  with  two  hundred  marines  and  a  detachment 
of  artillery,  to  attack  the  French  settlements  of 
^Goree  and  Senegal  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa. 
fhe  French  made~~nb  resistance,  and  Senegal,  an 
important  centre  of  the  slave  trade,  at  once  sub- 
mitted. Marsh  then  sailed  to  the  south  and  at- 
tacked the  island  of  Goree,  but  his  force  was 
insufficient  and  he  returned  to  England.  Later  in 
the  year  (December  29th)  Goree  was  captured  by  a 
much  stronger  force  which  had  been  sent  out  under 
Keppel. 

FredfirickX  .campaign  d u ring_i^58ji[splay:edLhis 
great  qualities,  but  produced  no  conclusive  successes. 
-  His  attempt  to  take  Olmutj^.iailed,  owing  to  Daun's 
skilful  movements,  and  he  turned  towards  the  east, 
where  the  Russians  had  advanced  nearly  to  Frank- 
fort on  the  Oder.  The  battle  of  Zornsdorf  was  the 
lirsl  in  which  he  commanded  against  fhe  Russians. 
His  opponent  was  Fermor,  who  commanded  sixty- 
nine    thousand    men,    while    Frederick    had    only 


17611  Pitt's    War  Ministry.  137 

thirty-two  thousand,  and  the  battle  practically  lasted 
three  days,  beginning  the  25th  of  August.  The 
slaughter  was  immense,  the  Russians  admitting  that 
they  had  lost  ten  thousand  eight  hundred  and  eighty- 
six  killed  and  twelve  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
eighty-eight  wounded,  while  Frederick  lost  twelve 
thousand  men.*  But  the  victory  was  really  with 
Frederick  as  Ferrrror  was  compelled  to  retreat.  The 
Prussian  king's  absence  in  Pomerania  led  the  Aus- 
trians  to  make  a  simultaneous  attack  on  Saxony ,and 
Silesia,  and  Frederick  made  a  rapid  march  to  the 
Saxon  frontier.  Marshal  Daun,  however,  succeeded 
in  surprising  his  camp  at  Hochkirchen  and  inflicted 
a  severe  defeat  (October  14th).  Frederick  rapidly 
recovered,  escaped  Daun's  army,  and  marched  on 
Neiss,  a  frontier  town  in  Silesia  besieged  by  another 
Austrian  army.  He  raised  the  siege,  drove  the  Aus- 
trians  out  of  Silesia  and  marched  back  to  Saxony 
where  Daun  was  now  besieging  Dresden,  and  once 
more  compelled  the  Austrians  to  evacuate  Saxony. 
Nothing  in  his  great  career  is  more  admirable  than 
the  manner  in  which  he  stayed  the  advance  of  Rus- 
sians and  Austrians  during  1758. 

Parliament  met  on  November  23,  1758,  and  Pitt*s 
speech  reflects  his  confidence  and  determination. 

"  Pitt  opened  the  business  of  the  session  with  art,  seem- 
ing to  avoid  all  ostentation  of  power,  while  he  assumed 
everything  to  himself  but  the  disposition  of  the  money. 
That  load  he  left  to  the  Treasury,  and  vast,  he  said,  it 
would  be,  heaps  of  millions  must  be  raised, —  thus  af- 
fecting to  heighten  rather  than  disguise  the  expence  and 

♦Rambaud,  Russes  et  Trusses ^  p.  i86. 


138  William  Pitt.  [1757- 

difficulties  of  our  situation  ;  we  could  not  make  the 
same  war  as  the  French,  or  as  our  ancestors  did,  for  the 
same  money.  He  painted  the  distress  of  France,  and 
coloured  high  what  had  been  done  by  ourselves."  * 

The  estimates  voted  for  the  succeeding  year 
amounted  to  ;£"i2,76i,3io,  of  which  ;£"3, 120,000  went 
to  the  navy,  sixty  thousand  men,  ^1,256,130  to  the 
army,  eighty-five  thousand  men,  including  two  new 
regiments,  and  ;f  1,238,177  to  the  pay  of  the  foreign 
troops.  This  was  an  addition  of  about  two  and  a 
quarter  millions  on  the  previous  year's  estimates. 
In  France,  a  larger  amount  was  raised,  though  much 
of  it  went  into  the  hands  of  the  farmers  of  taxes, 
and  more  was  wasted  by  corrupt  administration.  At 
this  period,  however,  the  favour  of  Madame  de 
Pompadour  fell  on  a  worthier  object,  and  some  order 
was  restored  in  the  French  Government  by  the  ap- 
pointment of  the  Due  de  Choiseul  as  Secretary  of 
State  in  November,  1758.  '*  Choiseul  would  have 
been  at  any  time  a  remarkable  man  :  by  the  side  of 
the  pigmies  of  Louis  XV.'s  Court,  he  was  a  kind  of 
great  man."  f  As  a  Lorrainer  he  was  hereditarily 
devoted  to  Maria  Theresa's  husband,  and  he  signed 
on  December  30,  1758,  the  third  treaty  with  Austria. 
The  French  subsidy  was  increased,  and  France  was 
to  maintain  an  army  of  one  hundred  thousand  in 
Germany,  while  she  was  also  to  pay  the  Saxon  army 
and  the  Swedish  subsidy.  In  return  France  was  to 
receive  nothing ;  even  her  conquests  on  the  Rhine 
were  to  be  administered  in  the  name  of  the  Empress 

*Wal pole's,  Memoirs  of  George  II.,  iii,,  150. 
f  Martin,  Histoire  de  France y  xv.,  558. 


1761]  Pittas    War  Ministry.  139 

Queen  !  This  also  was  the  period  of  M.  de  Sil- 
houette, who,  for  a  time,  by  a  kind  of  juggling  in 
finance,  persuaded  the  French  people  that  he  would 
raise  enormous  sums.  There  was  a  momentary  re- 
vival of  ardour  through  the  promise  of  abundant 
money  and  the  conjunction  of  Choiseul  with  Belle 
Isle,  and  determined  efforts  were  to  be  made  to  re- 
dress in  1759  the  disasters  of  previous  years.  Pitt 
was  equally  determined,  and  the  year  proved  for  him 
the  most  glorious  in  his  career,  though  for  Frederick 
it  was  one  of  disaster. 

The   time  had   arrived    for   carrying   the  war  in 
America^Jntg  the  heart  of  the  French  possessions, 
and~a   very  comprehensive  plan  of   campaign  was 
arranged.     Attacks  were  to  be  made  on  four  points. 
Amherst,  now  comj3aand€^=-i4i-ehief   in  the  pk£-e  -of 
Abercrom^eTjyas   to    proceed    once  more    ae^ainst  \ 
Tico^nderoga  and  Crown  Point,  and  after  their  reduc-  ', 
tion  to  sail  up  Lake  Champlain  and  join  Wolfe  be-T* 
fore  Quebec  or  assist  him  by  an  attack  on  Moiitreal    j       '   // 
which  would  divide  the  French.      To  Wolfe  was  / 
given  the  most  difficult  and    important  command.  ■ 
In  conjunction  with  a  fleet  under  Admiral  Saunders,/ 
he   was   to    enter    the   St.    Lawrence   and   besiege 
Quebec.      Prideaux   was   to   attack   Fort    Niagara, 
cross  Lake  Ontario,  descend  the  St.  Lawrence  and 
approach    Montreal.      Stanwix    was   to   strengthen 
Pittsburg  and  attack  the  French  forts  between  that 
fort  and  Lake  Erie.     These  operations  assisted  one 
another,  but  it  would  have  been  a  miraculous  cam- 
paign if  all  the  difficulties  of  transport  across  wild 
country  had  been  so  completely  surmounted  as  to 


< 
'P^ 


140  William  Pitt.  [1757- 

allow  all  four  expeditions  to  perform  the  entire  task 
allotted.  Perfect  success  was  not  achieved  by  them 
all,  but  none  failed  to  secure  important  advantages. 
"  Every  colony  north  of  Maryland,"  says  Bancroft, 
"  seconded  the  zeal  of  William  Pitt."  Massachusetts 
sent  seven  thousand  men,  Connecticut  two  thousand. 
New  Jersey  one  thousand.  The  total  force  em- 
ployed on  the  English  side  numbered  about  thirty 
thousand. 

In  Canada  the  dangers  of  the  situation  were  clear- 
ly realised.  The  resources  of  the  colony  had  long 
been  wasted  by  the  corruption  of  the  leading  offi- 
cials, of  the  Intendant  Bigot  especially.  Canada  as 
well  as  France  had  its  Pompadours,  there  was  pover- 
ty and  scarcity  of  food  among  the  poorer  classes, 
and  little  hope  of  receiving  either  supplies  or  men 
from  France  ;  that  which  had  been  the  weakness  of 
the  English  in  the  early  years  of  the  war,  divided 
command,  was  now  reflected  by  the  quarrels  of  Van- 
dreuil  with  Montcalm  ;  Bougainville,  who  afterwards 
became  famous  as  a  navigator,  crossed  to  France  in 
order  to  beseech  the  French  Minister  for  reinforce- 
ments. **  Canada,"  he  said,  ''  had  been  saved  thus 
far  by  the  dissensions  of  the  English  colonies;  but 
now,  for  the  first  time,  they  are  united  against  her, 
and  prepared  to  put  forth  their  strength."  And  he 
begged  for  troops,  arms,  munitions,  food,  and  a 
squadron  to  defend  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence."^ 

The  reply  of  the  French  Minister,  addressed  to 
Montcalm,  would  have  afforded  an  effective  justifi- 

''^  Memoir e  au  Ministre par  M .  de  Bougainville^  December,  1758, 
quoted  by  Parkman,  ii.,  175. 


1761]  Pitt's   War  Ministry.  141 

cation  to  Pitt,  when  he  defended  his  famous  thesis 
that  America  was  conquered  in  Germany.  *'  It  was 
necessary  to  concentrate  all  the  strength  of  the  king- 
dom for  a  decisive  operation  in  Europe ;  therefore, 
the  aid  required  could  not  be  sent,  and  the  King 
trusted  everything  to  his  zeal  and  generalship,  joined 
with  the  valour  of  the  victors  of  Ticonderoga."  * 
Choiseul  in  fact  hoped  to  save  America  by  invading 
England.  Montcalm  did  his  best  with  the  means  at 
his  disposal ;  his  total  force  was  nearly  twenty  thou- 
sand and  the  natural  defences  of  the  centre  of  Can- 
ada were  very  strong.  Quebec  at  the  east,  the  rapids 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  west  of  Montreal,  and  the  Isle- 
aux-Noix  at  the  northern  outlet  of  Lake  Champlain 
barred  all  the  approaches.  Belle  Isle  wrote  to  him : 
''  If  we  sent  a  large  reinforcement  of  troops  there 
would  be  great  fear  that  the  English  would  intercept 
them  on  the  way  .  .  .  .  it  is  necessary  that 
you  limit  your  plans  of  defence  to  the  most  essential 
points  and  those  most  closely  connected,  so  that, 
being  concentrated  within  a  smaller  space,  each  part 
may  be  within  reach  of  support  and  succour  from 
the  rest.  How  small  soever  may  be  the  space  you 
are  able  to  hold,  it  is  indispensable  to  keep  a  footing 
in  North  America,  for  if  we  once  lose  the  country 
entirely,  its  recovery  will  be  almost  impossible."  f 

These   instructions    were   followed   and    little  at- 
tempt was  made  to  defend  the  outposts.     Amherst 
with  an  army  of  eleven  thousand,  which  he  had  \ 
thoroughly    drilled,    embarked    on     Lake     George- 

*Z^  Ministre  a  Montcalm,  February,  1759,  Parkman,  ii.,  175.         ' 
f  Belle  Isle  h  Montcalm,  February  19,  1759,  Ibid.,  177. 


142  William  Pitt,  [1757- 

towards  the  end  of  July.  Bourlamaque  commanded 
the  French,  and  had  about  four  thousand  men,  but 
in  obedience  to  instructions  he  fell  back  on  the  Isle- 
aux-Noix,  without  risking  a  battle.  Ticonderoga 
was  burnt  by  the  French  themselves,  and  on  August 
1st,  Amherst  took  possession  of  Crown  Point,  but 
after  this  success,  his  one  fault  as  a  general,  exag- 
gerated caution,  induced  him  to  remain  building 
forts  and  armed  ships  for  Lake  Champlain,  until 
October.  Thus  Wolfe,  before  Quebec,  was  left  with- 
out assistance.  Meanwhile  Prideaux's  army  had 
succeeded  in  capturing  Fort  Niagara  on  July  25th, 
though  Prideaux  himself  had  been  killed.  This  suc- 
cess on  Lake  Ontario  completed  the  severance  of 
Canada  from  the  French  forts  in  the  west,  and  its 
efTect  was  so  complete  that  Stanwix  carried  out  his 
expedition  from  Pittsburg  to  Lake  Erie  without  op- 
position. On  the  death  of  Prideaux,  Amherst  sent 
Gage  to  take  his  place,  with  orders  to  descend  the 
St.  Lawrence  and  attack  the  French  posts  on  that 
river  west  of  Montreal,  but  Gage  found  this  to  be 
impossible.  It  was  mid  October  before  Amherst 
himself  had  finished  his  boats  and  forts,  and  was 
ready  for  an  advance ;  his  small  navy  consisted  of  a 
brig,  a  floating  battery  and  a  sloop,  and  against  this 
force  the  four  French  ships  on  Lake  Champlain  made 
no  resistance.  But  the  weather  broke,  heavy  storms 
made  advance  impossible,  so  that  Amherst  made  no 
attack  on  the  Isle-aux-Noix,  but  retired  instead  to 
Crown  Point  in  order  to  finish  his  fort  there. 

Thus  in  his  great  enterprise  against  Quebec, Wolfe 
was  left  without  the  assistance  he  expected.     His, 


17611  Pitt's    War  Ministry.  143 

army  consisted  of  eight  thousand  six  hundred  effect- 
ives, while  Montcalm  commanded  more  than  fifteen 
thousand.  The  fleet  was  under  Admiral  Saunders, 
and  numbered  twenty-two  ships  of  the  line.  By 
June  26th  the  main  British  fleet  reached  the  Isle  of 
Orleans,  three  or  four  miles  from  Quebec,  where  the 
army  was  landed.  Montcalm  had  carefully  guarded 
every  point  which  was  open  to  attack,  he  had  de- 
clared that  he  would  play  Fabius  and  not  Hannibal, 
and  with  a  position  so  strong,  and  an  army  so  supe- 
rior in  numbers,  it  was  clear  that  Quebec  would  not 
easily  fall.  The  chief  incidents  of  the  siege,  which 
lasted  eleven  weeks,  are  well  known.  Wolfe  secured 
Point  Levi,  without  great  difficulty  and  from  thence 
bombarded  the  town  ;  the  French  failed  in  an  at- 
tempt to  burn  the  English  fleet  by  fire-boats  which 
were  sent  down  the  river  by  night:  the  English 
failed  in  an  attack  on  the  French  left  at  the  falls  of 
Montmorenci.  The  days  passed  and  by  the  begin- 
ning of  September  Wolfe,  having  altogether  failed  to 
draw  Montcalm  from  his  defences,  and  being  himself 
depressed  and  distracted  by  severe  illness,  and  con- 
vinced that  Amherst  would  not  come  in  time  to  ren- 
der effective  aid,  wrote  to  Pitt  the  famous  letter  in 
which  he  despaired  of  success.  He  had  lost  more 
than  eight  hundred  men  in  killed  and  wounded.  But 
he  was  not  the  man  to  leave  Quebec  without  ex- 
hausting every  possible  means,  and  he  resolved  on 
an  attempt  to  land  from  the  river  just  above  Cape 
Diamond,  and  to  climb  the  apparently  inaccessible 
cliff  to  the  high  ground,  which  was  somewhat 
weakly  defended.     Then  followed  the  famous  night 


144  William  Pitt,  [1757- 

attack  and  battle  on  the  Hjejghts_ol_Ah£ahani,  when 
Montcahn  was  at  last  defeated.  Wolfe,  charging  at 
the  head  of  his  favourite  Grenadiers,  was  thrice 
wounded  but  lived  to  hear  that  the  day  was  won. 
Montcalm  also,  the  gallant  soldier  who  had  struggled 
so  long  to  prop  the  declining  fortunes  of  France,  re- 
ceived his  death  wound  during  this  brief  but  mo- 
mentous battle.  In  the  Quebec  of  to-day,  which 
remains  the  most  poetic  of  New  World  cities,  a 
stately  obelisk  commemorates  the  common  death 
and  virtue  of  the  two  heroic  leaders. 

In  a  few  days,  Quebec  surrendered.  This  was  the 
most  striking  and  glorious  achievement  of  the  Brit- 
ish arms,  and  the  news  reached  London  almost  im- 
mediately after  Wolfe's  despairing  letter  to  Pitt  had 
been  made  known.  No  man  could  then  foresee  how 
influential  a  deed  had  been  wrought  by  this  decisive 
stroke  in  the  British  conquest  of  Canada,  but  the 
mingled  joy  and  tragedy  of  the  news  that  Quebec 
was  taken  and  Wolfe  dead  appealed  directly  to  the 
least  sensitive  imagination.  *'  Men  despaired,  they 
triumphed  and  they  wept ;  for  Wolfe  had  fallen  in 
the  hour  of  victory.  Joy,  curiosity,  astonishment, 
was  printed  on  every  countenance."  The  Minister 
and  soldier  were  thought  of  together  and  the  nation 
recognised  the  afKinity  in  spirit  between  the  daring 
and  determined  ofilicer  and  the  statesman  who, 
without  consideration  of  parliamentary  or  family  in- 
fluence, had  given  him  so  high  a  command.  Pitt  pro- 
nounced on  Wolfe  an  elaborate  eulogy,  which  has  not 
achieved  imrnortality,  but  Cowper  united  their  names 
in  lines  that  are  still  remembered  when  he  rejoiced 


MONTCALM  AND  WOLFE  MONUMENT  AT  UUhtJtC. 


1761]  Pitt's    War  Ministry.  145 

"  That  Chatham's  language  was  his  mother  tongue, 
And  Wolfe's  great  name  compatriot  with  his  own." 

The  ruin  of  the  French  naval  power  involved  them 
in  further  loss  in  the  West  Indies.  Their  two  islands 
Martiniqjie  and  Guadaloupe  were  the  centre  of  a 
lucrative  trade,  and  the  former  was  the  base  of  a 
destructive  fleet  of  privateers.  In  October,  1758, 
Pitt  sent  out  a  fleet  of  eight  ships  of  the  line,  with 
six  regiments  and  a  detachment  of  artillery,  which 
rendezvoused  at  Jamaica  in  January  and  was  joined 
by  the  squadron  stationed  there.  The  troops  were 
landed  on  the  island  of  Gaudaloupe,  when  news  came 
that  a  French  fleet  of  about  equal  strength  with  the 
English  had  been  sighted  north  of  Barbadoes,  and 
Commodore  Moore,  leaving  the  troops,  sailed  for 
Dominica.  The  position  of  the  army  was  then  very 
difficult,  but  they  succeeded  in  forcing  a  capitula- 
tion of  the  island  on  May  ist,  twenty-four  hours 
before  news  reached  the  French  that  reinforcements 
had  been  landed  from  Martinique,  under  protection 
of  the  French  squadron. 

Choiseul  hoped  to  revive  the  ardour  and  fortune 
of  France  by  courageous  attacks  on  her  enemy, 
much  as  Pitt  had  trusted  to  re-creating  the  warlike 
spirit  of  England  by  taking  the  offensive  against 
France.  It  was  proposed  to  make  descents  on  Eng- 
land, Scotland,  and  Ireland,  and  during  the  early 
months  of  1759  fleets  of  flat  bottomed  boats  were 
once  more  constructed  at  Dunkirk,  Havre,  Brest, 
and  Rochefort,  while  the  squadrons  at  Toulon  and 
Brest  were  to  unite  in  order  to  form  a  powerful  con- 
voy.    Choiseul  attempted  to  strengthen  his  naval 


146  William  Pitt, 


[1757- 


posltion  by  offering  Minorca  to  Spain  in  exchange 
for  an  alliance,  and  by  trying  to  persuade  the  Dutch 
to  join  the  war  against  England,  whose  arrogant  use 
of  her  sea-power  had  greatly  injured  the  Dutch 
trade.  He  endeavoured  also  to  secure  the  co-opera- 
tion of  Russia  and  Sweden  in  the  attack  on  Scot- 
land, but  these  powers,  although  members  -of  the 
Confederation  against  Frederick,  declined  to  join  in 
direct  conflict  with  Frederick's  ally.  They  made, 
however,  a  treaty  (March  9,  1759)  to  which  Den- 
mark acceded  in  the  following  year,  by  which  they 
agreed  to  unite  their  fleets  in  order  to  prevent  the 
entrance  of  warships  into  the  Baltic.  Choiseul's  at- 
tempts are  an  anticipation  of  Napoleon's  later  de- 
signs against  England,  while  the  Russo-Swedish 
agreement  was  a  forerunner  of  the  famous  armed 
neutrality  of  Catherine.  The  completeness  of  Eng- 
land's supremacy  at  sea  under  Pitt's  energetic 
Ministry  was  beginning  to  create  that  feeling  of  uni- 
versal jealousy  in  Europe  which  proved  of  so  great 
use  to  Napoleon  in  his  attempts  at  continental  fed- 
eration against  the  island  power.  There  is  a  very 
interesting  memoir  by  Choiseul,  which  shows  that 
he  at  least  realised  how  great  was  the  advance  made 
by  the  power  of  Great  Britain.  He  is  attempting 
to  persuade  the  Court  of  Stockholm  to  join  the 
proposed  descent  on  the  Scottish  coast. 

"  I  will  end,"  he  writes,  "  by  saying  that  we  in  France 
have  no  other  means  of  ending  successfully  a  war  that  is 
becoming  very  dangerous  to  the  equilibrium  of  Europe. 
We  must  not  deceive  ourselves.  The  true  equilibrium 
depends  in  reality  on  commerce  and  on  America.      The 


1761]  Pitt's    War  Ministry,  147 

German  war,  even  if  it  be  conducted  more  effectively 
than  at  present,  will  not  prevent  the  evils  that  are  threat- 
ened by  the  great  superiority  of  the  English  on  the  sea. 
The  King  will  impoverish  himself  in  vain.  He  will,  if 
we  are  not  cautious,  see  his  allies  forced  to  become  not 
the  subsidiaries  but  the  tributaries  of  Enlgand :  and  France 
will  need  several  Richelieus  and  Colberts  in  succession 
if  she  is  to  regain,  in  relation  to  the  enemy,  the  equality 
we  are  in  danger  of  losing."  * 

Choiseul's  whole  plan  was  based  on  the  hope  that 
the  English  navy  was  so  scattered  that  it  might  be 
possible  for  at  least  one  of  the  expeditions  to  elude 
the  vigilance  of  English  admirals.  His  scheme 
would  have  been  an  ambitious  one  even  if  France 
had  obtained  command  of  the  sea  ;  under  the  con- 
ditions existing  it  was  little  better  than  ridiculous. 
A  royal  message  informed  the  House  of  Commons 
on  May  30th  of  the  French  design,  and  measures 
were  taken  to  embody  the  entire  militia,  while 
special  terms  were  offered  to  recruits  for  home  de- 
fence. Pitt,  it  will  be  remembered,  had  on  a  previ- 
ous occasion  drawn  an  alarming  picture  of  a  French 
invasion,  by  way  of  stimulating  the  popular 
imagination.  In  this  year  England  had  no  need  for 
mercenaries  to  defend  her  shores,  no  panic  disturbed 
the  people,  and  Pitt  wrote  in  an  official  dispatch  to 
the  English  Ambassador  at  Madrid : 

"  Whatever  danger  there  may  be  of  an  invasion  being 
attempted,  such  is  the  situation  of  these  Kingdoms  by 
the  wise  precautions  of  his  Majesty,  that  the  apprehension 

*  Choiseul  to  d'Hauricourt,  March  21,  1759.  Flassan's  Diplomatic 
Fran^aise^  vi.  p,  160. 


148  William  Pitt. 


[1757- 


of  the  consequences  of  such  an  attempt  neither  disturbs 
nor  fluctuates  the  councils  of  the  King,  nor  tends  in  the 
least  to  break  the  measures,  or  check  the  vigour  of  any 
part  of  the  plan  of  the  war  ;  his  Majesty's  regular  forces 
in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  amounting  to  above  40,000 
men,  35  ships  of  the  line,  besides  frigates,  equipped  and 
manned  for  home  service."  * 

Notwithstanding  the  magnitude  of  his  various 
schemes,  Pitt  did^jiot  recall  a  single  jiian  from  for- 
^dgnservice.  It  was  a  satisfactory  contrast  to  the 
condition  of  things  in  1756,  and  events  showed  that 
the  Minister's  confidence  was  well  founded.  The 
naval  preparations  were  complete.  A  squadron  un- 
der Commodore  Boyce  was  stationed  off  Dunkirk, 
while  a  larger  fleet  under  Admiral  Hawke  blockaded 
Brest,  and  other  smaller  squadrons  watched  the  port 
of  Vannes.  As  the  larger  French  force  was  to  em- 
bark from  Havre,  Admiral  Rodney  was  sent  to 
bombard  that  fort.  This  he  accomplished  with  ade- 
quate effect  in  July.  The  French  had  been  for 
some  time  equipping  a  powerful  fleet  in  Toulon,  and 
their  one  hope  of  success,  either  in  the  attack  on 
England  or  the  reinforcement  of  Canada,  lay  in  the 
junction  of  this  fleet  with  that  at  Brest.  The  French 
admiral  at  Toulon,  De  la  Clue,  had  twelve  ships  of 
the  line,  while  Admiral  Boscawen,  who  commanded 
in  the  Mediterranean,  had  a  fleet  of  fourteen  of  the 
line.  An  attack  on  two  French  ships  lying  close  to 
the  harbour  of  Toulon  led  to  three  English  ships 
being  seriously  damaged  by  the  land  batteries,  and 
this  compelled  Boscawen  to  put  in  to  Gibraltar  to 

*  June  5,  1759.     Thackeray's  Life  of  Chatham^  i.,  395. 


1761]  Pitt's   War  Ministry.  149 

refit.  He  detached  two  frigates  to  watch  the  enemy, 
and  on  August  17th  the  Gibraltar  frigate  signalled 
that  the  French  fleet  was  in  sight.  Boscawen  at 
once  put  to  sea,  and  at  daylight  sighted  seven  ships 
of  the  line.  De  la  Clue's  squadron  had  been  sepa- 
rated in  the  night.  Boscawen  gave  chase  and  quickly 
captured  the  Centaur.  He  pursued  the  French 
fleet  all  night,  and  on  the  following  morning  the  two 
fleets  were  ofT  the  coast  of  Portugal,  and  De  la  Clue 
put  himself  under  the  protection  of  a  Portuguese 
fort.  The  niceties  of  neutrality  law  did  not  appeal 
to  Boscawen,  and  he  continued  his  attack,  capturing 
the  Ocean  (80  guns,  esteemed  the  best  French  ship 
afloat),  the  Teineraire  (74),  and  the  Modeste  (64)  ;  the 
Redoubtable  (74)  was  burnt.  The  remains  of  the 
Toulon  fleet  put  in  to  Cadiz  where  they  were  block- 
aded. This  victory  of  Cape  Lagos,  in  which  the 
English  loss  was  only  fifty-six  men,  was  a  great  blow 
to  Choiseul's  ambitions. 

It  was  immediately  preceded  by  an  English  vic- 
tory on  land.  Prince  Ferdinand  was  opposed  by  a 
French  army  of  considerably  greater  strength  than 
his  own.  At  the  end  of  1758  the  chief  French  army, 
thirty-five  thousand  strong  under  the  Due  de  Broglie, 
was  at  Bergen  near  Frankfort,  while  the  Marshal  de 
Contades  commanded  another  on  the  river  Lippe. 
Ferdinand  desired  to  take  advantage  of  this  separa- 
tion, and  leaving  the  British  and  Hanoverians  to 
watch  Contades,  he  attacked  De  Broglie  on  April 
13th.  The  attack  was  beaten  off  with  heavy  loss; 
the  two  French  armies  combined  and  reduced  Mun- 
ster  and  Minden.     At  the  last  place,  Contades,  who 


i^o  William  Pitt, 


[1757- 


commanded  the  united  army,  took  up  a  strong  posi- 
tion, his  right  leaning  on  the  river  Weser  and  the 
town  of  Minden,  his  left  protected  by  boggy  ground, 
his  front  protected  by  a  stream.  Ferdinand  was 
inferior  in  numbers,  but  by  his  skilful  disposition  he 
deceived  Contades,  drew  him  from  his  position,  and 
inflicted  a  signal  defeat.  The  English  infantry  and 
artillery  won  great  glory,  but  the  cavalry  remained 
inactive  owing  to  the  strange  conduct  of  their  com- 
mander, Lord  George  Sackville,  who  declined  to 
charge  notwithstanding  repeated  orders. 

Lord  George  Sackville  was  commanded  home, 
tried  by  court-martial,  and  dismissed  from  all  mili- 
tary appointments.  There  had  been  great  jealousy 
between  Prince  Ferdinand  and  the  English  com- 
mander, and  the  apology  made  for  Lord  George 
Sackville  was  that  the  superior  officer  had  purposely 
made  the  orders  given  to  his  subordinate  difficult 
and  incomprehensible.  When  the  unhappy  officer 
returned  to  England  in  disgrace,  Pitt,  who  had  been 
his  friend, 

"  went  to  visit  Lord  George  in  form  .  .  .  He  would 
not,  he  said,  condemn  any  man  unheard.  But  he  was 
true  to  the  German  cause.  .  .  .  When  Fitzroy  re- 
turned to  the  army,  Mr.  Pitt  charged  him  with  the 
strongest  assurances  to  Prince  Ferdinand.  '  Tell  him,' 
said  Mr.  Pitt,  *  he  shall  have  what  reinforcements,  what 
ammunition  he  pleases — tell  him  I  will  stand  and  fall 
with  him.*  "  * 

Prince  Ferdinand  deserved  the  highest  praise,  for, 


*  Walpole's  Memoirs  of  George  II.,  iii.,  214. 


1761]  Pitt's    War  Ministry.  151 

against  heavy  odds,  he  had  won  a  victory  which 
completely  changed  the  situation.  Hanover  had 
seemed  to  be  at  the  mercy  of  the  French,  but  the 
battle  of  Minden  turned  their  steady  advance  into  a 
retreat,  Contades  retiring  towards  the  Rhine,  and  De 
BrogHe  upon  Frankfort.  The  campaign,  which  had 
promised  to  be  the  most  successful  for  France,  since 
that  which  ended  in  the  convention  of  Kloster-Severn, 
was  robbed  of  all  appreciable  gain.  Pitt  was  de- 
lighted by  the  victory  of  ''  our  immortal  Ferdinand." 
At  the  close  of  the  year  he  wrote  to  the  Prince  that, 
as  a  good  Englishman,  he  was  as  warmly  affected  by 
Minden  as  by  Quiberon  Bay.  \/^ 

While  both  on  land  and  sea  the  British  and  Han- 
overian cause_prQspered,  Frederick  was  sorely  beset. 
This  was  his  fourth  campaign,  and  proved  disas- 
trous through  the  success  achieved  by  the  immense 
Russian  armies.  Prince  Soltykoff  was  appointed 
generalissimo  of  the  Russians  in  succession  to  Fer- 
mor,  and  his  campaign  was  a  strikingly  successful 
one.  He  advanced  towards  Silesia,  and  at  the  bat- 
tle of  Zullichau  (July  23rd)  the  Russians  defeated  a 
much  smaller  Prussian  army  under  Wadell,  and  occu- 
pied Frankfort-on-Oder,  where  they  were  joined  by 
Loudoun  with  eighteen  thousand  Austrians.  Fred- 
erick himself  marched  to  give  the  Russians  battle, 
but  with  a  much  inferior  force  he  suffered  the  most 
terrible  of  all  his  defeats.  For  three  days  he  de- 
spaired, but  his  enemies  failed  to  take  advantage 
of  his  sore  straits,  when,  as  he  himself  said,  they 
had  only  to  give  him  one  finishing  blow.  But  com- 
plete recovery  was  impossible,  and  the  rest  of  the 


152  William  Pitt,  [1757- 

year  was  full  of  disaster,  Daun  in  Saxony  taking 
Dresden  and  compelling  the  surrender  of  Prussian 
troops  at  Maxen  and  Meissen. 

The  elaborate  scheme  of  invading  England  was 
not  abandoned  even  after  the  battle  of  Lagos.  It 
was  believed  that  bad  weather  in  the  later  months 
of  the  year  would  drive  the  blockading  fleets  from 
off  Dunkirk  and  Brest.  A  violent  gale  on  October 
1 2th  enabled  Thurot  to  escape  from  Dunkirk  ;  he 
took  refuge  in  the  harbour  of  Gothenburg,  but  his 
voyage  round  Scotland  was  tempestuous,  and  his 
little  expedition  only  reached  Carrickfergus  in  the 
north  of  Ireland  on  February,  1760,  where  he  landed 
six  hundred  men  and  took  a  few  prisoners.  On 
sailing  from  the  port  his  ships  were  sighted  by  three 
English  frigates  and  after  a  gallant  fight,  surrendered. 
The  same  storm  in  October,  1759,  which  had  made 
Thurot's  escape  possible,  compelled  Hawke  to  return 
to  Torbay  for  shelter.  With  a  heavy  gale  blowing 
from  the  west  it  was  impossible  for  the  French  to 
sail,  but  immediately  the  gale  lessened  the  French 
admiral  Conflans  put  to  sea.  ^  His  fleet  consisted  of 
twenty-one  ships  of  the  line,  the  English  of  twenty- 
three.  Hawke  sailed  from  Torbay  the  day  Conflans 
left  Brest,  and  directed  his  course  to  Quiberon  Bay 
where  he  expected  the  French  fleet  to  rendezvous ; 
a  strong  easterly  gale  drove  him  far  to  the  west,  but 
the  wind  veered  round  and  on  November  20th  his 
advanced  frigates  discovered  the  French  fleet  bear- 
ing north  between  Belle  Isle  and  the  main  land.  A 
fierce  sea,  a  treacherous  coast,  the  reefs  and  shallows 
of  the  bay,  made  pursuit  of  the  French  dangerous, 


sir  EbttT"  Hawkb 

Admiral  of  the  White . 


1761]  Pitt's   War  Ministry. 

and  they  endeavoured  to  escape  by  keeping  inshotw 
So  dangerous  was  the  coast  even  in  fine  weather 
that  pursuit  in  the  midst  of  storm  seemed  impos- 
sible, and  it  is  said  that  so  Httle  did  the  French  be- 
Heve  that  Hawke  would  dare  to  follow  them  that 
they  mistook  the  van  of  the  English  fleet  for  pilot 
ships,  and  could  not  crowd  sail  for  flight  until  it  was 
too  late.  The  pilot  informed  Hawke  that  he  could 
not  obey  his  order  to  lay  him  alongside  of  the  French 
admiral  without  danger  of  running  on  a  shoal. 
''You  have  done  your  duty  in  pointing  out  the 
danger,"  replied  the  Admiral,  ''  now  obey  my  com- 
mand and  lay  me  alongside  of  the  Soleil  RoyalJ" 
Several  of  the  French  ships  fought  with  great  gal- 
lantry, but  the  result  of  the  fight  was  never  in 
doubt.  This  battle  was  the  Trafalgar  of  the  war ; 
the  French  navy  was  for  practical  purposes  de- 
stroyed, and  ChoiseuFs  ambitious  projects  were 
finally  abandoned.  The  total  English  loss  was  only 
forty  killed  and  two  hundred  and  two  wounded  ; 
at  so  little  cost  but  by  unsurpassed  daring  did  Hawke 
achieve  the  immense  results  of  Quiberon  Bay. 
y  Parliament  had  met  on  November  13th,  a  week 
before  Hawke's  victory.  Pitt  was  now  at  the  sum- 
mit  of  his  fame^n^d  the  absolute  ruler  of  the  IJouse 
as  well  as  of  the  Ministry.  His  name  was  identified 
with  victory  all  over  the  world,  and  his  strong  will 
was  sovereign  over  the  military  forces  and  political 
government  of  the  country.  The  closing  year  had 
been  one  of  unexampled  glory.  There  had  been 
two-great  naval^victories,  Madras  had  been  saved 
from  the  French,  they  had  been  defeated  at  Minden, 


William  Pitt,  [1757- 

*v^hile  Goree,  Guadaloupe  and  above  all  Quebec 
had  been  taken  from  them.  And  this  was  the  year 
which  Choiseul  had  hoped  to  signalise  by  the  in- 
vasion of  England.  In  the  debate  on  the  address, 
Beckford,  always  an  enthusiastic  follower  of  Pitt, 
spoke  a  glowing  eulogy  on  the  Minister,  but  Pitt 
was  always  modest  when  praised,  though  the  proud- 
est of  men  when  slighted  or  attacked. 

"  He  disclaimed  particular  praise,  and  professed  his 
determination  of  keeping  united  with  the  rest  of  the 
ministers.  Fidelity  and  diligence  were  all  he  could 
boast,  although  his  bad  health  perhaps  had  caused  him 
to  relax  somewhat  of  his  application.  Not  a  week,  he 
said,  had  passed  in  the  summer  but  had  been  a  crisis  in 
which  he  had  not  known  whether  he  should  be  torn  in 
pieces,  or  commended,  as  he  was  now  by  Mr.  Beckford. 
That  the  more  a  man  was  versed  in  business,  the  more 
he  found  the  hand  of  Providence  everywhere.  That 
success  had  given  us  unanimity,  not  unanimity  success. 
That  for  himself,  however,  he  would  not  have  dared,  as 
he  had  done,  but  in  these  times.  Other  ministers  had 
helped  as  well,  but  had  not  been  circumstanced  (not  so 
popular)  to  dare  as  much.  He  thought  the  stone  almost 
rolled  to  the  top  of  the  hill,  but  it  might  roll  back  with 
dreadful  repercussion.  A  weak  moment  in  the  field,  or 
in  council,  might  overturn  all  ;  for  there  was  no  such 
thing  as  chance  ;  //  was  the  unaccountable  name  of  No- 
thing. All  was  Providence,  whose  favour  was  to  be 
merited  by  virtue.  Our  Allies  must  be  supported  ;  if 
one  wheel  stopped,  all  might.  He  had  unlearned  his 
juvenile  errors,  and  thought  no  longer  that  England 
would  do  all  by  itself  ;  who  had  never  been  subject  to  a 
panic ^  was  not  likely  to  be  terrified  now. 


1761]  Pittas    War  Ministry.  155 

He  stated  Prince  Ferdinand's  army  as  containing  but 
sixty  thousand  men  ;  France,  next  year  would  have  one 
hundred  thousand  —  was  Prince  Ferdinand,  therefore, 
as  strong  as  we  wished  him  ?  He  did  wish  ten  thousand 
more  could  be  found  for  him  ;  believed  France  meant 
to  invade  us  ;  though  he  should  not  look  on  the  attempt 
as  dangerous  if  she  did.  He  balanced  his  attention  be- 
tween the  landed  and  the  monied  interest  ;  he  did  not 
prefer  the  monied  men  and  the  eighty  millions  in  the 
Funds  to  the  landed  interest,  though  he  thought  our 
complaisance  for  the  former  ought  to  increase  as  public 
credit  became  more  delicate.  He  ended  with  a  mention 
of  peace.  Anybody,  he  said,  could  advise  him  in  war  ; 
who  could  draw  such  a  peace  as  would  please  everybody  ? 
He  would  snatch  at  the  first  moment  of  peace  ;  though 
he  wished  he  could  leave  off  at  the  war.  "  * 

The  acts  which  followed  this  speech  showed  that 
Pitt's  heart  was  more  in  the  war  than  in  the  prospects 
of  peace.  The  supplies  which  Parliament  granted 
for  the  ensuing  year  rose  to  the  great  sum  of  ^15,- 
503,563,  an  increase  of  close  on  three  millions  on 
those  granted  for  the  year  of  victory  just  ended. 
The  British  army  now  exceeded  one  hundred 
thousand,  with  twenty  thousand  militia.  Greater 
energy,  more  men  and  more  money  were  to  be  de- 
voted to  the  Continental  war,  for  indeed  France 
offered  scarce  any  other  colonies  for  attack.  In  the 
negotiations  for  peace  also  we  see  clearly  enough 
that  Pitt  was. determined  to  treat  his  Continental 
engagements  as'  Essential  parts  of  the  English  policy 
and  conditions  of  "peace.     Pitt  kept  these  negotia- 

*  Walpole's,  Memoirs  of  George  II.,  iii,,  215,  216, 


156  William  Pitt.  [1757- 

tions  as  entirely  in  his  own  hands  as  he  did  the  con- 
duct of  war,  and  Newcastle,  who  had  innocently 
enough  received  information  as  to  these  proposals, 
was  compelled  to  write  a  timid  disclaimer  to  Pitt, 
which  reads  oddly  as  the  letter  of  the  nominal  Pre- 
mier, and  shows  how  completely  Pitt  controlled  the 
only  man  in  the  Ministry  who  could  be  his  rival. 
*'I  would  not  enter  into  any  correspondence  of  busi- 
ness," wrote  the  head  of  the  Treasury,  *' and  relating 
to  peace,  with  Mr.  Yorke,  or  any  of  the  King's  Min- 
isters whatever,  upon  any  account  in  the  world.  I  am 
as  innocent  and  as  ignorant  of  everything  relating  to 
this  affair,  if  it  be  of  consequence,  as  any  man  alive."^ 
Frederick  was  anxious  for  peace,  his  army  being  now 
reduced  to  one  hundred  thousand,  most  of  whom 
were  raw  recruits  and  his  country  impoverished  by 
the  long  war,  and  Pitt  agreed  to  a  joint  declaration, 
which  was  delivered  by  Prince  Louis  de  Brunswick 
to  the  Ambassadors  of  the  belligerent  powers  at  The 
Hague  in  November,  1759.  Their  Britannic  and 
Prussian  Majesties  agreed  "  to  treat,  in  conjunction, 
concerning  a  firm  and  general  peace,"  but  the  attempt 
at  a  congress  failed.  France  indeed  wished  for  peace, 
but  Choiseul  had  resolved  to  keep  the  questions  of 
peace  with  England  and  Prussia  separate,  while  Pitt 
was  determined  to  keep  faith  with  Frederick  and  to 
conclude  no  separate  treaty.  Moreover  the  demands 
made  by  Pitt  were  so  alarming  that  it  seemed  that 
France  had  nothing  further  to  lose  by  the  war, 
whereas  Continental  victories  might  make  her  posi- 
tion stronger. 

*  Chatham  Correspondence  i.,  445,  446. 


1761]  Pitt's   War  Ministry.  157 

The  death  of  Ferdinand  VI.  of  Spain  (August  10, 
1759)  improved  the  international  situation  of  France, 
and  Choiseul's  plan  was  to  attempt  peace  with  Prus- 
sia through  Russian  mediation,  and  peace  with 
England  through  the  mediation  of  Spain.  The 
victories  of  Russia  had  so  enlarged  her  plans  of  ex- 
tension that,  so  far  from  being  likely  to  serve  the 
purpose  of  France  in  this  manner,  the  Czarina  now 
demanded  the  original  kingdom  of  Prussia  for  her- 
self, a  plan  of  aggrandizement  too  great  to  suit  the 
views  of  France,  and  jn  itself  unlikely  to  recommend 
Russian  mediation  to  the  favour  of  Frederick.  But 
the  new  king  of  Spain  was  a  firm  supporter  of 
French  interests,  and  quickly  revived  the  system  of 
the  Bourbon  compact.  While  still  King  of  Naples, 
he  had  made  an  indistinct  offer  of  good  offices,  and 
he  immediately  fell  in  with  Choiseul's  request  that 
he  would  negotiate  with  England.  Pitt,  however, 
declined  to  accede  to  the  request  that  he  should 
formulate  conditions  of  peace,  though  in  a  dispatch 
of  November  20th  to  the  Ambassador  at  Madrid,  he 
expressed  a  desire  for  Spanish  good  offices.  A  later 
dispatch,  dated  December  14th,  discloses  a  less 
friendly  attitude  towards  Spain,  as  the  following 
extract  shows  : 

"  Above  all,  I  am  to  let  your  Excellency  understand 
that  that  part  of  the  (Spanish)  memorial  which  declares 
his  Catholic  Majesty  cannot  see  with  indifference  our 
successes  in  America,  seems  very  little  consistent  with 
the  professions  in  the  other  part  of  that  piece,  where 
Spain  desires  to  be  considered  as  in  a  pure  neutrality, 
and  as  a  disinterested  equal  friend,  and,  in  that  quality, 


158  William  Pitt.  [1757- 

to  become  an  object  of  confidence  to  both  belligerent 
powers." 

The  danger  of  the  change  in  Spanish  rule  was  thus 
immediately  apprehended  by  Pitt,  and  the  negotia- 
tions through  Spain  proved  as  fruitless  as  those 
which  were  jointly  attempted  by  Prussia  and  Great 
Britain.  Negotiations  were  in  fact  illusory  when 
Maria  Theresa  and  Elizabeth  on  the  one  side,  and 
Pitt  on  the  other,  maintained,  in  each  of  the  hostile 
alliances,  a  determinedly  warlike  spirit.  Frederick 
desired  peace  because  he  believed  he  could  set  off 
the  enormous  English  gains  against  his  own  misfor- 
tunes, but  reduced  though  he  was,  he  was  in  no  mind 
to  further  peace  by  any  concessions  of  his  own. 
Pitt  would  not  desert  Frederick,  and  would  only 
offer  such  terms  as  might  have  been  accepted  if 
Frederick  had  been  as  victorious  as  his  ally,  so  for 
two  more  years  the  war  was  to  continue. 

Seeing  peace  was  impossible,  Choiseul  prepared 
for  greater  exertions,  and  France  responded  to  the 
call  in  a  manner  worthy  of  high  admiration.  Sil- 
houette was  exposed  and  her  finances  were  appar- 
ently ruined,  but  the  people  accepted  the  repudiation 
of  state-debts  ;  her  naval  power  was  destroyed,  yet 
she  still  attempted  to  send  reinforcements  to  America; 
her  army,  which  had  suffered  so  greatly  through  bad 
leadership  and  bad  organisation,  was  once  more  sent 
forth  to  crush  Ferdinand  and  conquer  Hanover. 
Only  Prussia  itself,  with  a  genius  for  King,  dis- 
played equal  persistency  under  equal  discouragement. 
During  this,  the  fifth  campaign  of  the  war,  Frederick 


1761]  Pitt's    War  Ministry.  159 

by  victories  at  Leignitz  and  Torgau,  did  much  to  re- 
trieve his  position  against  Austria  and  Russia. 

Pitt  sent  nearly  ten  thousand  horse  and  foot  from 
England  to  Prince  Ferdinand,  whose  army  now  in- 
cluded twenty-two  thousand  British  troops.  His 
campaign  consisted  mostly  of  skirmishes,  his  aim 
being  to  annoy  the  French  in  their  advance  on 
Hanover,  rather  than  to  meet  them  in  pitched  bat- 
tle. There  were  fights  at  Korbach  and  Emsdorf, 
where  the  Prince  of  Brunswick  and  the  British  troops 
under  him  gained  much  renown,  and  a  more  im- 
portant battle  at  Warburg  (July  31st),  where  the 
French  lost  one  thousand  five  hundred  and  the 
English  cavalry  under  Lord  Granby  made  a  famous 
charge.  But  the  result  of  the  campaign  was  on  the 
whole  favourable  to  the  French,  as  at  its  close  they 
occupied  both  Gottingen  and  Hesse,  and  thus 
threatened  Hanover. 

The  year  1760  witnessed  the  completion  of  the 
conquest  of^Canada,  and  of  the  French  in  the  Car- 
Hjalic^  Murray  had  remained  in  command  of  the 
garrison  at  Quebec,  which  was  besieged  by  De  Levi, 
who  had  succeeded  to  Montcalm's  command.  A 
foolish  sortie  by  the  English  resulted  in  defeat  and 
considerably  weakened  their  defensive  force,  but  on 
May  17th  the  English  fleet  entered  the  St.  Lawrence 
and  the  French  at  once  raised  the  siege.  They  had 
now  only  the  heart  of  their  colony,  Montreal,  to  de- 
fend, and  if  that  fell,  not  even  the  square  foot  of 
ground  in  North  America,  which  Montcalm  was  so 
earnestly  charged  to  retain,  would  remain  to  them. 
From  three  directions  English  arnaies-were  approach- 


i6o  William  Pitt. 


[1757- 


ing;  Amherst  himself  from  Oswego,  Haviland  from 
Crown  Point  by  Lake  Champlain,  and  Murray  from 
Quebec.  On  September  8th,  they  joined  forces  be- 
fore the  city,  whicb_at_once_capitulated.  Later  in 
the  year  the  famous  Rogers  with  two  hundred 
rangers  went  West  and  took  Fort  Detroit.  French 
power  in  Canada  was  gone,  and  only  Louisiana  re- 
mained of  the  great  American  empire  which  Louis 
XV.  had  inherited. 

The  En^gjish_^aus£_Jii_-J-adia,__which  we  left  after 
the  battle  of  Plassey,  and  dive's  subjugation  of 
Bengal,  was  advancing  in  Madras  towards  a  tri- 
umphant close.  Of  the  three  European  Powers, 
which  rivalled  one  another  in  the  East,  the  events 
of  the  w^ar  made  England  undisputed^head^  At  the 
close  of  1759,  an  attempt  was  made  by  the  Dutch 
to  break  the  paramount  power  of  the  English  in 
Bengal.  They  entered  into  an  intrigue  with  Meer 
Jaffier.  The  trade  of  their  settlement  at  Chinsurah 
had  been  seriously  affected  by  the  new  privileges 
granted  to  Clive ;  they  had  observed  the  natural  dis- 
like of  the  Nabob  for  his  new  over-lord  and  deter- 
mined on  hostile  action.  This  danger  was  averted 
by  Colonel  Forde's  victory  over  the  Dutch  at 
Biderra  (November,  1759). 

The  contest  with  the  French  in  the  South  was 
being  waged  while  Clive  was  completing  his  ascend- 
ancy over  Bengal.  The  French  Government  at  first 
sent  larger  reinforcements  than  the  English  Minis- 
ters, although  they  failed  to  respond  to  later  de- 
mands for  further  help.  Although  inferior  in  every 
other  part  of  the  world,  on  the  Coromandel  Coast 


1761]  Pitt's    War  Ministry.  i6i 

the  French  navy  was  for  some  time  superior  in 
number  to  the  English,  Count  d'Ach^  commanding 
eight  ships  of  the  line  and  one  frigate,  to  the  seven 
ships  of  the  line  of  Pococke,  who  had  succeeded 
Watson.  This  superiority  was,  however,  never 
turned  to  advantage,  as  the  French  admiral  be- 
lieved it  to  be  more  important  to  preserve  his  own 
fleet  than  to  destroy  his  enemy,  with  the  result  that 
the  English  operations  on  land  were  conducted 
with  the  advantages  of  co-operation  with  the  fleet, 
while  the  French  were  never  able  to  rely  on  help  from 
Count  d'Ach^.  The  navaLpilan  in  the  earlier  part 
of  this  campaign  consisted  of  qn£_i£ature — the  at- 
tempts of  Pococke  to  compel  the  French  to  decisive 
battle,  and  the  success  of  d'Ach^  in  bafifling  this  at- 
tempt. During  twenty-nine  months  the  French  ad- 
miral only  spent  twelve  days  on  the  Coromandel 
Coast,  retiring,  time  after  time,  to  the  Isle  of  France 
(Mauritius).  The  commander  of  the  French  land 
forces  was  Lally,  a  man  of  Irish  Jacobite  family  who 
bitterly  hated  the  English.  He  was  a  capable 
soldier  of  fiery  activity,  but  lacking  in  qualities  of 
leadership,  totally  ignorant  of  Indian  warfare,  scorn- 
ful of  native  assistance,  and  careless  of  native  pride. 
He  landed  at  Pondicherry  in  May,  1758,  with  one 
thousand  European  soldiers  (many  of  them  Irish), 
which  was  the  largest  European  army  landed  in 
India  till  that  day.  Fort  St.  David  was  promptly 
besieged,  surrendered  on  June  2,  1758,  and  was 
razed  to  the  ground.  Lally  desired  to  lay  siege  to 
Madras  immediately,  but  d'Ach^  declined  to  co- 
operate.    In  August,  Pococke  sighted  d'Ach^'s  fleet 


1 62  William  Pitt.  [1757- 

and  gave  chase,  but  the  French  escaped  to  Pondi- 
cherry,  and  the  following  month  sailed  to  the  Isle  of 
France.  Lally  in  December  besieged  Madras  with 
an  army  of  two  thousand  seven  hundred  Europeans 
and  four  thousand  sepoys,  the  English  force  con- 
sisting of  one  thousand  eight  hundred  Europeans 
and  three  thousand  two  hundred  natives.  The  city 
was  gallantly  defended,  and  on  February  16,  1759, 
the  arrival  of  Pococke's  fleet  raised  the  siege. 
Lally's  appeal  to  the  home  government  for  fresh 
help  was  fruitless.  Pitt  on  the  other  hand  was  now 
alive  to  the  grandeur  of  the  opportunity,  and,  in 
October,  Admiral  Cornish  arrived  with  four  ships  of 
the  line,  and  Colonel  Eyre  Coote  landed  at  Madras 
with  the  84th  Regiment,  to  take  over  the  command. 
From  this  point  the  English  were  continually  on  the 
offensive,  and  on  January  22,  1760,  the  great  battle  of 
Wandewash  was  fought.  This  battle  was  decisive  of 
the  fate  of  Madras,  as  Plassey  had  decided  the  fate 
of  Bengal.  Coote  gradually  reduced  the  French 
fortresses  in  the  Carnatic,  and  in  December  besieged 
Pondicherry,  where  Lally  and  the  remaining  French 
troops  had  taken  refuge.  The  town  was  also  block- 
aded by  sea,  and  although  the  resistance  was  con- 
tinued in  face  of  famine  and  disease,  on  January  16, 
1 761,  Pondicherry  surrendered,  and  Lally  with  two 
thousand  French  became  prisoners  of  war.  Thus 
ended  the  French  power  in  India. 

On  October  25,  1760,  an  event  occurred  of  the  great- 
est importance  to  Pitt. ,  George  II.  died  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  grandson.  The  old  King  had  been 
for  long  the  bitter  enemy  of  the  Minister,  who  had 


1761]  Pitt's    War  Ministry,  163 

made  the  concluding  years  of  his  reign  so  glorious. 
But  he  was  a  man  of  sterling  qualities,  prejudiced 
indeed,  but  loyal  to  his  word,  and  the  staunch  friend 
of  Pitt  when  once  he  had  given  his  trust.  "  Sir,  give 
me  your  confidence  and  I  will  deserve  it,"  the  Min- 
ister had  said  to  the  sovereign.  "  Deserve  my  con- 
fidence and  you  shall  have  it,"  was  the  King's 
promise  in  reply,  and  it  was  faithfully  kept.  With 
the  accession  of  George  III.  the  whole  atmosphere 
of  politics  changed.  The  young  King  cared  little 
for  the  war,  and  above  all  cared  nothing  for  Hanover. 
Of  stronger  individual  mind  and  will  than  his  pre- 
decessor, his  ambition  was  at  first  concerned  with 
the  enlargement  of  the  royal  prerogative,  rather  than 
with  foreign  affairs.  From  the  moment  of  his  ac- 
cession he  was  virtuous,  conscientious,  stubborn,  and 
persistent.  In  the  settlement  of  all  questions  that 
arose  during  his  reign,  his  character  was  an  important 
factor,  and  although  his  throne  was  never  occupied 
by  a  man  of  purer  motives  or  more  immaculate  life, 
few  British  sovereigns  have  exercised  a  less  happy 
influence  on  the  destiny  of  their  kingdom.  The 
narrowness  of  his  mind,  his  pride,  his  consciousness 
of  probity  gave  strength  to  a  tenacious  and  persistent 
will.  The  first  two  kings  of  the  House  of  Hanover 
compensated  themselves  for  the  loss  of  monarchical 
right  by  the  enjoyment  of  monarchical  privileges  in 
private  life;  George  III.  loved  virtue  and  could  de- 
vote his  entire  energy  to  the  pursuit  of  power.  His 
mother  had  inculcated  this  equal  love  for  virtue  and 
power,  and  her  scheme  had  been  successfully  accom- 
plished.    The  young  King,  born  and  bred  a  Briton, 


164  William  Pitt.  [1757- 

felt  neither  the  fear  nor  the  gratitude  which  the 
Whig  oligarchy  impressed  on  his  two  predecessors, 
and  he  entered  into  his  kingdom  with  the  intention 
of  ruHng  it.  In  order  that  he  might  approach  that 
object  it  was  necessary  that  the  war  should  end,  as 
the  war  meant  Pitt,  and  Pitt,  the  idol  of  the  people, 
was  too  powerful  a  Minister  to  accord  with  the  new 
sovereign's  nascent  project.  It  was  therefore  with  a 
preconceived  plan  to  arrange  peace  at  the  earliest 
possible  opportunity,  and  in  order  for  that  to  get  rid 
of  Pitt,  that  George^T.  began  his  reign.  W*"^ 
vt  His  mother,  the  Dowager  Princess  of  Wales,  and 
Lord  Bute,  who  had  long  been  a  ruling  power  in  the 
Princess's  household,  were  prepared  to  stimulate  and 
assist  the  King.  Lord  Bute  was  destineti  to  play  a 
leading  part  in  the  first  years  of  the  reign.  He  was 
a  Scottish  nobleman,  very  vain  and  punctilious, 
lacking  broad  sagacity  and  wisdom,  but  with  some 
taste  and  talent  for  the  engrossing  duties  of  Court 
ambitions.  Few  men  have  been  more  hated  by  the 
English  people,  but  there  is  little  doubt  that  the 
grave  accusations  made  against  him  of  corruption 
and  immorality  were  untrue.  The  evidence  on 
which  they  rest  is  tainted.  The  part  which  Bute  was 
called  to  play  demanded  talents  of  the  highest  kind  ; 
he  was  to  follow  a  Minister  whose  policy  had  won  un- 
paralleled success  and  glory,  without  popularity  and 
with  little  Parliamentary  influence  he  was  to  sup- 
plant Pitt  and  the  Whig  nobles  in  the  Government, 
gradually  to  encroach  upon  aristocratic  privilege  in 
the  interests  of  his  master,  and  make  peace  when 
war  was  popular.     If  he  had  possessed  the  courage 


1761]  Pitt's    War  Ministry.  165 

and  obstinacy  of  the  King,  he  would  have  succeeded 
better,  but  he  was  timid  and  weak,  and  but  for  the 
help  he  received  from  some  Whigs,  such  as  Fox  and 
Grenville,  his  task  would  have  been  wholly  unac- 
complished. Bute  had  been  very  friendly  with  Pitt, 
and  supported  his  Ministry,  but  some  months  before 
George  II.  died  a  coolness  between  them  had  sprung 
up. 

On  October  28th,  Bute  was  sworn  of  the  Privy 
Council  without  office.  The  King  received  the  old 
Minister  cordially  and  pressed  him  to  continue  in 
office,  and  there  was  no  immediate  change.  An 
incident  occurred,  however,  when  his  first  speech 
from  the  throne  was  being  considered  by  Ministers, 
which  was  an  intimation  of  the  policy  that  would 
be  pursued.  In  the  draft  submitted  to  Ministers  oc- 
curred the  phrase,  *'  this  bloody  war";  this  Pitt  re- 
garded as  an  unjustifiable  reflection  on  his  policy, 
and  insisted  on  an  alteration.  When  the  speech 
was  delivered  his  Majesty  referred  with  pride  to  the 
victories  won,  but  declared  he  would  have  been  hap- 
pier still  if  he  could  have  found  his  kingdom  at 
peace  ;  "  but  since  the  ambition,  injurious  encroach- 
ments, and  dangerous  designs  of  our  enemies  ren- 
dered this  war  both  just  and  necessary,  I  am 
determined  to  promote  this  war  with  vigour."  The 
speech  also  praised  the  equanimity  and  perseverance, 
almost  beyond  example,  of  the  Prussian  King.  Par- 
liament displayed  its  now  customary  union  in  voting 
supplies,  which  this  year  reached  the  figure  of  ;^I9,- 
616,119  —  ^^  increase  of  four  millions  on  the  sum 
voted  for    1760.      The    session    was  a   quiet   one. 


1 66  William  Pitt.  [1757- 

Bute  was  attempting  to  divide  the  Whigs  in  order 
that  he  might  rule  them,  and  though  outwardly 
friendly  with  Pitt,  confessed  to  his  intimate  Bubb 
Doddington  his  design  to  remove  him.  Two  days 
after  Parliament  was  dissolved  important  ministerial 
changes  began.  Legge  was  dismissed  from  his  office 
as  Chancellor  of  theT!xchequer.  He  had  offended 
Bute  in  earlier  years  over  a  Hampshire  election.  Lord 
Holdgrness,  Pitt's  co-Secretary  of  State,  was  retired 
on  a  pension,  and  Bute  took  his  place,  while  Lord 
Barrington  became  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
and  two  ofthe  younger  men  who  had  devoted  them- 
selves to  Bute,  Charles' Townshend  and  Sir  Francis 
Dashwood,  received  important  posts.  Townshend 
was  a  brilliant  wit,  eloquent,  clever,  irresponsible, 
and  unscrupulous,  who  dealt  with  politics  in  a  spirit 
of  careless  gaiety.  Notwithstanding  his  utterly  su- 
perficial character  he  was  not  without  influence  on 
the  history  of  his  country,  for  he  played  a  part  in 
preparing  the  catastrophe  which  was  to  cloud  George 
HL's  reign.  Sir  Francis  Dashwood  exercised  the 
vices  of  his  time,  but  displayed  none  of  its  charm; 
he  was  neither  moral  nor  competent.  The  general 
election  followed  these  changes,  and  it  was  car- 
ried out  under  the  superintendence  of  Newcastle 
and,  to  a  less  extent,  of  Bute.  Practically  it  was  not 
fought  on  political  lines  at  all,  and  was  remarkable 
mainly  as  the  first  in  which  boroughs  were  openly 
bought  and  sold  to  any  wide  extent.  The  war  still 
continued  on  the  Continent,  and  though  no  pitched 
battle  was  fought,  the  year  1761  was  most  injurious 
to  Frederick.    Ferdinand  was  more  successful  against 


1761]  Pitt's    War  Ministry,  167 

De  Broglie  and  Soubise.  On  July  15th,  he  won  the 
victory  of  Kirch  Daubern,  against  the  combined 
French  armies,  but  before  the  close  of  the  year,  the 
French,  thanks  chiefly  to  their  numbers,  retrieved 
their  former  position.  Even  in  this  languid  close 
of  the  war  the  influence  of  the  Pompadour  was  felt ; 
Soubise  and  De  Broglie  quarrelled,  as  was  the  habit 
of  French  generals  at  this  time,  and  it  was  De  Brog- 
lie, the  able  general,  who  was  recalled,  and  Soubise, 
the  hero  of  Rossbach,  who  remained  in  command. 
But  the  belligerent  Powers  were  weary  of  the  war, 
and  a  more  serious  effort  was  made  this  year  to  se- 
cure peace.  Choiseul  with  great  difficulty  persuaded 
Maria  Theresa,  Elizabeth,  and  their  minor  allies  to 
agree  in  a  joint  declaration,  stating  their  readiness 
to  treat,  and  inviting  England  and  Prussia  to  send 
plenipotentiaries  to  a  congress  at  Ausburg.  To  this 
the  two  latter  countries  readily  agreed  in  a  counter- 
declaration.  A  preliminary  negotiation  was  also 
arranged  between  France  and  England. 

Pitt  retained  these  negotiations  in  his  own  hand  ; 
he  had  submitted  to  Bute's  ministerial  changes,  but 
in  the  negotiations  for  peace  he  was  determined  to 
be  sovereign  over  Bute,  as  in  the  conduct  of  the  war 
he  had  been  sovereign  over  Newcastle.  The  nego- 
tiations'* opened  with  an  offer  from  France,  which 
was  broad  enough  to  prove  the  sincerity  of  Choiseul. 
The  French  memorial  stated  that  although  it  was 
hoped  that  the  separate  peace  between  England  and 
France  would  secure  the  general  peace  of  Europe, 

♦These  papers  are  contained  in  Thackeray,  i.,  506  et  seq.^  and 
ii.,  Appendix  V. 


1 68  William  Pitt.  [1757- 

yet  separate  negotiations  were  desirable,  *'  as  the  na- 
ture of  the  objects  which  have  occasioned  the  war 
between  France  and  England  is  totally  foreign  to 
the  disputes  in  Germany  "  ;  and  offered  as  a  basis  to 
the  treaty  that  ''  the  two  Crowns  shall  remain  in 
possession  of  what  they  have  conquered  from  each 
other,"  separate  dates  during  the  year  for  Europe, 
the  West  Indies,  and  the  East  Indies  being  named 
as  the  occasion  on  which  the  conquests  should  be 
definitely  ascertained.  Pitt's  reply  accepted  the 
general  ]:^tention  of  conquests  as  a  proper  basis, 
but  demurred  to  the  fixing  of  specific  dates  or 
epochs.  He  also  declared  his  intention  to  support 
his  Majesty's  allies,  ''  whether  in  the  course  of  the 
negotiation  ...  or  in  the  continuance  of  the 
war."  Pitt  was  planning  to  conquer  Belle  Isle,  and 
was  anxious  to  avoid  losing  the  benefit  of  such  a 
success,  which  he  unduly  valued,  by  fixing  too  early 
dates  for  ascertaining  conquests  ;  Choiseul,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  naturally  anxious  not  to  include  in 
the  necessary  cessions  any  further  conquests  which 
might  be  made  by  England.  The  plan  of  a  suspen- 
sion of  hostilities  during  the  negotiation  was  not 
even  suggested.  Although  no  agreement  was  reached 
on  this  question  of  dates,  each  Power  appointed 
special  emissaries,  Bussy  being  sent  to  England  and 
Hans  Stanley  to  Paris.  Pitt's  instructions  to  Stanley 
fix, two  main  and  essential  points  for  his  guidance, 
firstly,  that  he  is  to  maintain  "  constant  possession 
of  the  strong  ground,  which  the  Due  de  Choi- 
seul's  memorial  of  the  26th  March  has  given,"  and 
secondly  that,  *'  whatever   shall  be  happily  agreed 


1761]  Pitfs   War  Ministry.  169 

between  us  and  the  most  Christian  King,  relative  to 
the  particular  war  between  the  two  Crowns,  be  ren- 
dered binding,  final  and  conclusive,  independent  of 
the  issue  of  the  riegoH^Honc;  af-_Aiigqhi]ror  for  ad- 
justing and  terminating  the  disputes  of  Germany, 
and  for  retaining  the  general  peace  thereof."  Stan- 
ley was  also  instructed  to  receive  all  proposals  ad 
referendum^  to  express  the  constant  resolution  of 
the  English  King  to  support  Prussia,  and  further  *'  to 
give  a  watchful  attention  to  the  conduct  and  motion 
of  the  Spanish  Ambassador."  There  was  some 
delay  in  Bussy's  arrival,  a  delay  which  Pitt  regarded 
as  an  affront,  but  which,  in  reality,  was  an  amusing 
testimony  to  the  awe  which  was  felt  by  the  French 
envoy  for  the  English  Minister.  Stanley  writes  to 
Pitt: 

"The  Duke  de  Choiseul  informed  me  of  the  awe  with 
which  M.  de  Bussy  was  struck  by  you,  and  said  he  was 
not  surprised  at  it,  car  le  pauvre  diable  tremblait  de  peur 
en  partant.  He  was  so  much  frightened  that  he  wrote 
for  a  passport  to  return  ;  the  Duke  showed  me  this  re- 
quest in  his  own  hand.  His  reflection  upon  it  was, 
Apparemment^  Sire,  quil  a  deplu  a  Monsieur  Pitt  j  qui 
I  'aura  fait  sauter  par  les  fenetres." 

Stanley's  interview  with  Choiseul  was  friendly, 
but  the  difficulty  of  fixing  dates  was  the  first  barrier 
to  be  surmounted.  Belle  Isle  fell  to  the  English 
invaders  on  June  7th,  and  Pitt  was  doubtless  influ- 
enced by  this  to  make  a  concession  on  the  point. 
The  British  memorial  of  June  17th  agreed  that  the 
dates  suggested  by  France  (with  the  exception  of 


170  William  Pitt.  [1757- 

that  fixed  for  Europe  which  was  already  passed) 
should  be  the  epochs  to  fix  the  uti  possidetis.  The 
conditions  attached  were  first,  that  the  peace  should 
be  independent  of  the  congress  at  Augsburg,  and 
.secondl)MLhat  preliminary  articles  should  be  signed 
by  August  I,  1 76 1.  ''  With  regard  to  Belle  Isle, 
his  Majesty  will  agree,  in  the  said  future  treaty, 
to  enter  into  compensation  for  that  important  con- 
quest." Choiseul's  first  proposal  to  Stanley,  on  the 
question  of  compensation  for  the  various  conquests 
which  France  would  cede  to  England,  was  given  on 
condition  of  complete  secrecy.  The  Ministers  of 
Spain  and  of  the  Empress  Queen  were  opposing 
the  peace  with  England,  and  Choiseul  represented 
himself  as  struggling  for  peace  with  the  aid  of  the 
King  himself,  but  against  the  strong  influence  pos- 
sessed by  the  CathoHc  ambassadors.  This  "'  little 
leaf,"  as  it  was  called,  which  was  only  delivered  on 
the  promise  that  it  was  not  to  be  urged  against 
Choiseul  in  any  future  treaty,  made  the  following 
proposal : 

"  Monsieur  le  Due  de  Choiseul  propose  ^  Monsieur 
Stanley  :  il  demande  la  restitution  de  la  Guadaloupe  et 
de  Mariegalante,  ainsi  celle  de  Goree  pour  I'isle  de  Mi- 
norque  ;  il  propose  la  cession  entiere  du  Canada  a  I'ex- 
ception  de  I'isle  Royale  (C.  Breton  I.)  ou  il  ne  sera  point 
etabli  de  fortifications,  et  fixer  cette  cession  la  France 
demande  la  conservation  de  la  peche  de  morue  telle 
qu'est  etablie  dans  le  traite  d'Utrecht,  et  une  fixation 
des  limites  du  Canada  dans  la  partie  de  I'Ohio  deter- 
minees  par  les  eaux  pendantes,  et  fixees  si  clairement  par 
le  traite  qu'il  ne  puisse  plus  y  avoir  aucune  contestation 


1761]  Pill's   War  Minislry,  171 

entre  les  deux  nations  par  rapport  aux  dites  limites. 
La  France  rendra  ce  que  ses  armies  ont  conquises  en 
AUemagne  sur  les  Allies  Britanniques." 

Pitt's  letter  to  Stanley  on  this  offer  remarked  that 
it  opened  a  most  interesting  scene,  and  proceeded  to 
comment  vigorously  upon  the  proposals.  He  made 
the  following  very  different  proposal : 

"  (i)  The  cession,  without  new  limits,  of  all  Canada  and 
its  dependencies,  of  C.  Breton  and  all  islands  in  the  Gulf 
aud  river  of  St.  Lawrence  with  the  right  of  fishery. 

"  (ii)  The  cession  of  Senegal  and  Goree. 

"  (iii)  The  reduction  of  Dunkirk. 

"  (iv)   Equitable  partition  of  the  neutral  Islands. 

"  (v)  The  restoration  of  Minorca  and  destruction  of 
French  settlements  in  Sumatra. 

"  (vi)  Restitution  of  all  conquests  in  Hesse,  Hanover, 
and  Westphalia. 

"  On  the  above  points  his  Majesty's  intention  will  be 
found  fixed  and  unalterable." 

The  shock  of  such  different  proposals  might  well 
have  precluded  further  discussion,  but  Stanley's  let- 
ter to  Pitt  (of  July  1st)  showed  Choiseul  in  a  mood 
for  agreement.  He  yielded  all  that  was  asked  for  in 
America  except  the  priyilege  of  the  fishery,  on  which 
he  laid  the  greatest  stress  throughout  all  the  nego- 
tiations, understanding  the  importance  of  the  ques- 
tion much  better  than  Stanley  desired.  His  new 
proposal  was  that  England  should  name  *'a  port, 
totally  defenceless,  at  all  times  in  her  power,"  which 
would  serve  as  a  shelter  for  the  fisherman.  "■  Thus 
far  he  will  go,"  wrote  Stanley,  ''  and  I  think  he  will 


172  William  Pitt.  [1757- 

throw  himself  into  the  arms  of  Austria,  rather  than 
proceed  further."  He  agreed  to  cede  Senegal,  but 
demanded  restitution  of  Goree  on  the  ground  that 
France  must  possess  an  African  port  for  the  ship- 
ping of  negroes,  or  the  West  Indian  sugar  islands 
would  be  without  value.  On  the  question  of  Dun- 
kirk, which  was  in  reality  a  mere  obsolete  tradition 
in  English  poHcy,  he  declined  to  agree,  but  made 
no  difficulty  about  the  neutral  islands,  Sumatra  or 
India.  He  agreed  to  restore  Minorca,  but  laughed 
at  the  idea  that  Belle  Isle  was  ari_e£|j.iiv3lent.  Choi- 
seul  further  insisted  that  the  conquests  in  Germany 
were  of  great  importance  to  England,  and  gave 
Stanley  the  impression  "  that  the  Court  of  Vienna, 
more  exasperated  than  ever,  has  made  a  fresh  pro- 
posal of  dedoinmagements  in  Flanders,  for  the 
consequences  that  may  attend  the  rupture  of  a  sep- 
arate treaty  with  us."  A  few  days  later  Choiseul 
made  the  very  important  announcement  that  pro- 
positions had  been  opened  to  France,  hinting  that 
if  she  continued  the  war,  she  would  have  *'  new 
allies,  meaning  Spain."  It  was  this  intrusion  of 
foreign  matter  into  the  negotiations  that  proved 
fatal  to  peace,  as  it  is  unlikely  that  the  small 
difference  between  the  French  and  English  pro- 
posals would  of  itself  have  caused  Pitt  to  break 
ofT  the  treaty. 

The  new  difficulty  was  mentioned  in  a  French 
memorial  dated  July  15th.  Reference  was  made  to 
the  long  standing  disagreements  between  England 
and  Spain  regarding  certain  English  settlements 
on  Spanish  territory  in  the  bay  of  Honduras,  the 


1761]  Pitt's    War  Ministry,  173 

-Spatrish  claim  to  fish  off  Newfoundland,  and  the  cap- 
tures of  Spanish  ships  during  the  war.  These  for 
some  two  years  had  been  the  subject  of  embittered 
relations  between  Spain  and  England,  and  the  old 
spirit  of  Bourbon  alliance  was  risen  so  high,  that 
Choiseul,  much  against  his  earlier  views,  adopted  the 
strange  course  of  presenting  a  note  in  which  he 
stated  the  Spanish  case,  and  continued  :  "The  King 
.  .  .  cannot  disguise  from  England  the  danger  he 
apprehends  and  of  which  he  must  necessarily  par- 
take, if  these  objects,  which  seem  nearly  to  concern 
his  Catholic  Majesty,  should  be  the  occasion  of 
a  war."  This  amiable  conjunction  of  the  Bourbons 
raised  in  Pitt  the  highest  indignation.  Abandoning 
the  mannered  language  of  diplomacy,  he  addressed 
the  French  envoy  in  peremptory  tones : 

"  It  is  my  duty  further  to  declare  to  you  in  plain 
terms,  in  the  name  of  his  Majesty,  that  he  will  not  suffer 
the  disputes  with  Spain  to  be  blended,  in  any  manner 
whatever,  in  the  negotiation  of  peace  between  the  two 
Crowns  ;  to  which  I  must  add,  that  it  will  be  considered 
as  an  affront  to  his  Majesty's  dignity,  and  as  a  thing 
incompatible  with  the  sincerity  of  the  negotiations,  to 
make  further  mention  of  such  a  circumstance.  More- 
over, it  is  expected  that  France  will  not  at  any  Xxva^ pre- 
sume a  right  of  intermeddling  between  Great  Britain  and 
Spain.  These  considerations,  so  just  and  indispensable, 
have  determined  his  Majesty  to  order  me  to  return 
to  you  the  memorial  which  occasions  this,  as  wholly 
inadmissible." 

Writing  to  the  Earl  of  Bristol  (July  28,  1761), 
British  Ambassador  at  Madrid,  Pitt  declared  that 


174  William  Pitt,  [1757- 

*'  nothing  could  equal  the  King's  surprise  and  regret 
at  a  transaction  so  unprecedented,"  and  instructed 
him  to  remonstrate  with  energy  and  firmness  against 
the  French  memorial,  unless  it  was  disavowed  by 
the  Spanish  Court.  In  reply  to  the  three  points  in 
which  the  Spanish  demanded  redress,  Pitt  stated 
that  the  Newfoundland  fishery  was  a  matter  held 
sacred,  and  that  no  concession  would  be  made  to 
Spain,  however  abetted  and  supported,  and  that  the 
restitution  of  prizes  made  against  the  flag  of  Spain 
was  a  matter  for  the  British  prize  courts  to  decide. 
As  regards  Honduras  he  would  negotiate.  The 
Ambassador  was  also  directed  to  inquire  the  mean- 
ing of  the  naval  armaments  preparing  in  the  ports 
of  Spain.  Wall,  the  Spanish  Minister,  admitted 
that  the  memorial  had  been  presented  by  Bussy 
with  the  knowledge  and  approval  of  the  Spanish 
Court,  but  asserted  that  it  was  not  believed  that  it 
would  give  ofTence  to  Great  Britain.  France  had 
**  spontaneously  offered  (in  case  the  disputes  of 
Great  Britain  and  Spain  should  at  any  time  here- 
after occasion  a  rupture  between  the  two  Courts) 
to  unite  her  forces  with  those  of  Spain  to  prevent 
the  English  encroachments  in  America ;  an  offer 
which  the  Spanish  monarch  had  received  with  great 
cordiality.**  This  was  a  very  significant  statement, 
but  the  tenor  of  Wall's  answer  to  Bristol  was  on  the 
whole  amicable.  Pitt  had  expressed  himself  to  Bussy 
in  terms  which  gave  great  offence  to  Spain  and 
France,  but  he  did  not  allow  his  indignation  to  ter- 
minate the  negotiations  with  Choiseul.  On  August 
i6th,  he  delivered  to  Bussy  a  further  reply  which 


17611  Pitt's   War  Ministry,  175 

was  itself  written  in  a  haughty  and  scolding  temper, 
but  was  accompanied  by  a  memorial  that  comprised 
important  concessions.  The  note  to  Bussy  after 
justifying  the  refusal  to  accept  either  the  memorial 
on  behalf  of  Spain  or  any  memorial  stipulating  for 
the  desertion  of  the  Prussian  King  by  Great  Britain 
and  stating,  what  might  well  have  been  omitted, 
that  the  King  perceived  that  the  peace  so  much  de- 
sired is  far  distant,  ends  by  offering  a  conference  on 
the  final  memorials  of  the  two  Courts.  The  British 
memorial  made  a  great  concession  to  France  on 
the  fishery  question.  If  Dunkirk  were  demolished, 
French  subjects  were  to  enjoy  the  privilege  of  fish- 
ing in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  (on  condition  that 
they  abstained  from  fishing  on  all  coasts  appertain- 
ing to  Great  Britain),  together  with  the  privilege 
granted  by  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  of  fishing  and  drying 
on  a  specified  stretch  of  the  banks  of  Newfoundland. 
The  Isle  of  St.  Pierre  would  be  ceded  as  a  shelter 
and  port,  on  the  conditions  that  no  fortification 
be  erected,  that  the  vessels  of  no  other  nation 
be  admitted,  that  the  possession  of  the  island  be 
not  construed  as  conferring  any  right  of  fishing  or 
drying  in  any  other  part  than  that  fixed  by  the 
Treaty  of  Utrecht,  and  that  an  English  commissary 
be  allowed  to  reside  in  the  island. 

On  the  other  most  difBcult  question  of  the  entire 
negotiation,  Pitt  adhered  to  his  demand  that  all  con- 
quests in  Westphalia  should  be  evacuated,  and  again 
proposed  that  "  Great  Britain  and  France  shall  be  at 
liberty  to  support  their  respective  allies  and  auxili- 
aries in  the  particular  contest  for  the  recovery  of 


176  William  Pitt, 


[1757- 


Silesia,  according  to  the  engagements  entered  into 
by  each  Crown."  In  the  dispatch  to  Stanley  cover- 
ing this  memorial,  Pitt  writes: 

"  After  many  and  long  deliberations  the  advice  most 
humbly  offered  to  his  Majesty  has  been  that  it  is  more 
expedient  not  to  break  off  at  once  the  negotiation  with 
France  on  the  fact  of  the  ultimatum  of  England  without 
putting  once  more  to  the  test  the  too  justly  suspected 
sincerity  of  France,  by  the  great  concession  on  the  part 
of  England  of  a  Hberty  to  fish  in  the  said  gulfs,  and  of 
an  abri  there  for  the  French  fishing  vessels.  .  .  . 
I  will  not  conceal  from  you  that  little  more  is  expected 
here  from  the  facility,  great  and  essential  as  it  is,  with 
regard  to  the  liberty  of  fishing  in  the  gulfs  and  the  abri 
here  offered  to  France  than  to  put  that  Court  more  in 
the  wrong,  in  case  it  shall  reject  these  so  favourable 
conditions  of  peace." 

The  last  memorial  of  France  (September  13,  1761) 
came  very  near  to  accepting  Pitt's  ofTer.  As  regards 
the  fisheries,  Choiseul  asked  for  the  island  of  Con- 
ceau,or  if  that  was  still  denied,  the  island  of  St.  Pierre 
with  the  island  of  Maquelon  would  be  accepted  as 
a  shelter,  on  the  conditions  specified  by  Pitt.  At 
the  same  time  it  was  agreed  to  demolish  Dunkirk. 
On  Continental  questions  Choiseul  was  firmer. 
France  would  evacuate  her  conquests  in  countries 
belonging  to  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  the  Duke  of 
Brunswick,  and  the  Elector  of  Hanover,  which  con- 
quests were  connected  with  the  British  war,  but 
conquests  from  the  King  of  Prussia  would  only  be 
evacuated  by  the  consent  of  the  Empress  Queen  at 


1761]  Pitt's   War  Ministry.  177 

the  congress  of  Augsburg.  The  French  King  de- 
clared himself  willing  to  stipulate  that  he  would 
grant  no  succour  to  his  allies  for  the  continuance  of 
the  war  against  Prussia  ;  but  only  on  the  conditions 
that  Great  Britain  would  enter  into  a  like  agreement 
with  respect  to  the  King  of  Prussia.  Pitt's  reply- 
was  a  brief  one.  At  a  meeting  of  the  Cabinet  on 
September  15th,  it  was  unanimously  resolved  that 
*'  as  the  Court  of  France,  after  so  many  variations 
and  retractions  on  her  part,  during  this  long  depend- 
ing negotiation,  has  finally  thought  fit  not  to  accept 
the  terms  offered  .  .  .  you  (Stanley)  are  forth- 
with to  demand  a  passport,  and  return  to  England." 
Choiseul  in  his  last  note  to  Stanley  writes  that  the 
King  of  France 

"  hoped  that  some  more  happy  opportunity  will  produce 
more  effectual  inclinations  to  peace,  and  he  has  charged 
me  to  observe  to  you  that  you  may  assure  the  King  of 
England  that  he  will  always  find  him  disposed  to  renew 
the  negotiation,  and  to  consent  to  equitable  conditions, 
which  may  establish  a  firm  union  between  the  two 
Crowns." 

Pitt's  conduct  of  these  negotiations  has  been 
severely  criticised.  It  was  not  in  matters  of  diplo- 
macy that  his  genius  shone.  Compromise  was  for- 
eign to  his  nature,  which  loved  bold  action  and  fixed 
conceptions.  With  no  taste  for  bargaining,  he  was 
ready  to  make  concessions,  as  the  history  of  the 
negotiations  clearly  proves,  but  he  expected  his  con- 
cessions to  be  accepted  as  final  and  without  criti- 
cism.    Moreover,  his  style  was  unusually  direct  and 


178  William  Pitt.  [1757- 

salient,  and  while  Choiseul  urbanely  hinted  his  ob- 
jections the  more  formal  grandees  of  Spain  declared 
that  Pitt's  manner  was  an  international  outrage. 
Apart  from  his  methods,  which  were  not  calculated 
to  heighten  the  comity  of  nations,  the  principles 
which  Pitt  laid  down  were  open  to  criticism.  It  has 
been  seen  that  as  regards  the  restitution  of  colonial 
conquests,  he  and  Choiseul  reached  a  practicable 
agreement ;  but  as  regards  the  European  question 
they  were  as  far  apart  at  the  end  as  at  the  beginning 
of  their  discussion.  In  the  nature  of  things,  this 
was  perhaps  inevitable.  Each  had  an  ally  which 
was  no  party  to  the  negotiation,  and  Choiseul  was 
as  determined  not  to  desert  the  Empress  Queen  as 
Pitt  was  to  abide  by  his  engagement  with  the  King 
of  Prussia.  Pitt's  offer  that  both  France  and  Great 
Britain  should  be  free  to  continue  to^  support  their 
allies  was  reasonable,  but  he  combined  with  this  an 
imperative  command  that  'France  should  evacuate 
all  conquests  from  Prussia.  These  conquests  were 
made,  and  were  actually  administered  in  the  name 
of  Maria  Theresa,  and  France  could  not  comply 
with  the  demand  without  open  desertion  of  her  ally. 
Pitt's  insistence  on  this  demand  appears  the  most 
unreasonable  part  of  his  conduct.  There  is  a  note 
in  the  handwriting  of  Hardwicke,"^  in  which  the 
Chancellor  states  that  "  Stanley  did  say  clearly,  and 
to  myself,  that  he  thought  Mr.  Pitt's  manner  of 
negotiating  spoilt  the  peace,  and  that  France,  though 
humbled  and  weakened,  was  still  a  Power  which  had 
an  existence  in  the  world."     The  answer  to  that 


■  Memoirs  of  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham^  October  i,  1761, 


1761]  Pitt's   War  Ministry,  179 

criticism,  which  was  just  so  far  as  Pitt's  manner  and 
phrases  are  concerned,  is  in  the  very  substantial  con- 
cessions which  were  offered  to  France  after  a  war  of 
unexampled  disaster.  The  restoration  of  Guada- 
loupe,  Mariegalante,  Belle  Isle,  and  the  important 
privilege  of  fishing  was  not  such  an  offer  as  would 
be  made  to  a  Power  which  was  regarded  as  finally 
ruined,  and  it  is  by  the  substantial  offers  he  makes, 
and  not  by  his  idiosyncrasies  of  manner,  that  a 
statesman  is  to  be  judged.  Judged  by  this  test,  it 
is  clear  that  his  terms  were  such  as  might  honour- 
ably have  been  accepted  by  France,  with  one  ex- 
ception, and  it  is  probable  that  Choiseul  would  have 
welcomed  them  but  for  the  entanglements  of  the 
Austrian  alliance,  and  the  prospect  opened  by  the 
Spanish  quarrel  with  Great  Britain.  In  keeping 
faith  with  Prussia,  Pitt  was  only  observing  his  treaty 
engagements,  and  in  his  protest  against  the  French 
adoption  of  Spain's  grievances  he  acted  in  a  right 
and  proper  spirit. 

Pitt  yielded  on  the  fishgry_£uestion  against  his 
judgment,  and  a  succession  of  Ministers  at  the  For- 
eign Office  have  had  reason  to  regret  that  the  con- 
cessions originally  made  by  Bolingbroke  at  Utrecht 
were  not  at  this  time  summarily  withdrawn.  The  im- 
portance of  the  question  was  better  understood  in 
1 761  than  1713,  but  it  is  clear  that  Choiseul  was  de- 
termined to  carry  the  point.  Pitt  is  always  credited 
with  the  wish  to  ruin_Fraiice  altogether  as  a  mari- 
time Power,  and  that  was  his  ambition,  but  great 
nations  are  not  ruined  by  a  single  war,  however  dis- 
astrous, and  Pitt  realised  as  clearly  as  anyone  the 


i8o  William  Pitt,  [1757- 

power  of  revival  which  France  possessed.  That  re- 
vival was  easier  and  more  rapid  because  of  the  fish- 
ery concessions  which  he  was  compelled  to  offer, 
partly  by  the  firmness  of  Choiseul  and  partly  by  the 
views  of  the  English  Cabinet.  ^ 

Three  days  after  the  meeting  at  which  the  decis- 
ion to  break  off  the  negotiation  was  taken,  Pitt  and 
Temple  presented  their  famous  advice  to  the  King 
on  the  Spanish  question.  They  urged  that  Spain 
enforced  her  demands  '*  through  the  channel  and  by 
the  compulsion  of  a  foreign  power"  ;  this  amounted 
to  *'  a  full  declaration  and  avowal  at  last  made  by 
the  Spanish  Ministry  of  a  total  union  of  councils  and 
interests  between  the  two  monarchies  of  the  House 
of  Bourbon."  Their  advice  to  the  King  was  an  im- 
mediate declaration  of  war  against  Spain. "^ 

The  Cabinet  was  startled  by  this  pronouncement. 
"  I  submitted  my  advice  to  a  trembling  council," 
said  Pitt  some  years  later.  Pitt  is  said  to  have  re- 
ceived private  information  of  the  new  Family  Com- 
pact which  had  been  signed  between  France  and 
Spain  on  August  iSth.f  He  did  not  lay  this  before 
the  Cabinet,  but  he  showed  them  a  letter  from  Stan- 
ley :  *'  I  have  secretly  seen  an  article  drawn  up 
between  France  and  Spain,  in  which  the  former  en- 
gages to  support  the  interests  of  the  latter  equally 
with  her  own  in  the  negotiation  of  peace  with  Eng- 
land. .  .  .  Bussy  was  directed  not  immediate- 
ly to  sign  the  peace  if  it  could  be  agreed  with 
England."     He  could  also  point  to  the  express  state- 

*  Grenville  Papers^  i.,  386. 
f  See  Appendix. 


1761]  Pitt's   War  Ministry,  i8i 

ment  of  Wall  that  France  had  made  an  offer  of 
guaranty  to  Spain  which  had  been  accepted,  and 
although  the  guaranty  did  not  refer  to  the  present 
war,  this  admission  of  Wall's  was  a  clear  indication 
that  the  House  of  Bourbon  was  once  more  united. 
Moreover,  Choiseul  had  hinted  to  Stanley  that  if 
peace  was  not  concluded,  France  "  would  have  new 
allies,  meaning  Spain."  These  were  overt  and  grave 
facts,  such  as  responsible  Ministers  were  bound  to 
consider.  Again  and  again  the  statesmen  of  Great 
Britain  were  faced  by  a  threatening  union  of  the^ 
Bourbon  dynasties,  and  that  union  had  always  been 
considered  the  most  formidable  enemy  of  British 
interests.  France  had  been  driven  out  of  the  New 
World,  but  Spain  remained,  and  Spain  was  still  the 
greatest  American  Power.  No  one  could  doubt  that 
the  situation  created  by  the  new  alliance  was  one 
which  might  threaten  the  duration  of  England's  new 
dominion  in  the  West.  How  was  the  situation  to 
be  met?  Pitt  was  for  immediate  war.  Throughout 
his  life  he  had  regarded  the  House  of  Bourbon  as  the 
enemy  which  must  be  destroyed,  and  his  mind  har- 
boured no  scruples  about  the  justification  of  war  by 
some  irremediable  injury  or  wrong.  France  had  de- 
clined peace,  and  Spain  had  confessed  her  union 
with  France :  therefore  Spain  must  be  punished. 
"  Now  is  the  time  for  humbling  the  whole  House 
of  Bourbon !  We  must  not  allow  them  a  moment 
to  breathe ;  self-preservation  bids  us  crush  them, 
before  they  can  combine  or  recollect  themselves." 
It  was  the  passionate  conviction  and  the  daring  pol- 
icy of  the  statesman  who  by  some  sublime  instinct 


82  Willia^n  Pitt, 


[1757- 


realised  the  destiny  of  his  nation,  for  in  that  arro- 
gant utterance  of  Pitt  the  history  of  England  dur- 
ing the  eighteenth  century  was  epitomised. 

Pitt's  only  supporter  was  Temple.  The  King  in- 
formed Pitt  that  he  would  take  no  resolution  with 
regard  to  Spain  until  Stanley  was  arrived  from  Paris. 

"  Mr.  Pitt  adhered  to  his  paper,"  writes  Newcastle  *  ; 
"  said  he  would  not  execute  any  other  measure,  and  insin- 
uated that  the  other  Secretary  of  State  (Bute)  might  do 
it.  Mr.  Pitt  lamented  his  situation,  repented  of  the  dif- 
ficulties he  had  been  led  into  by  the  French  negotiations, 
and  was  determined  now  to  abide  by  his  own  opinion. 
(After  Pitt  was  gone),  Duke  of  Devonshire  and  I  de- 
clared that  no  consideration  or  threat  from  Mr.  Pitt 
should  make  us  depart  from  our  opinion.  My  Lord 
Bute  said  we  were  right  ;  that  the  thing  was  over  ;  that 
after  what  happened  Mr.  Pitt  and  my  Lord  Temple 
could  not  stay.  .  .  .  We  both  said  that,  without  de- 
parting from  our  opinion,  we  wished  anything  might 
be  done  to  keep  Mr.  Pitt  ;  my  Lord  Bute  said  that  was 
impossible." 

Letters  arrived  from  Stanley  saying  that  Choiseul 
was  sincere  for  peace  and  that  Spain  should  be 
dropped.  These  letters  made  no  impression  on  Pitt, 
but  the  King  and  Lord  Bute  laid  stress  on  them. 
*'  The  King,"  writes  Newcastle  on  September  26th, 
"seems  every  day  more  offended  with  Mr.  Pitt 
and  plainly  wants  to  get  rid  of  him  at  all  events." 
On  October  ist,  he  reports  that  Stanley  has  returned 
from  Paris,  "  tending  to  war  not  peace."  On  Octo- 
ber 2d,  the  Cabinet  met  to  decide  finally  whether 

♦To  Hardwicke,  2ist  September,  Memoirs  of  Rockingham. 


17611  Pitt's   War  Ministry.  183 

Pitt's  advice  should  be  accepted,  and  on  their  de- 
cision to  reject  his  poHcy,  Pitt,  with  Lord  Temple, 
declared  his  resolution  to  resign. 

In  the  Newcastle  papers  there  is  a  very  interesting 
account  of  this  famous  Cabinet  meeting,  written  by 
the  old  Duke,  who,  without  fully  realising  it,  had 
been  the  instrument  of  Bute.  This  was  the  last 
council  Pitt  attended  as  a  commoner,  as  '*  the  great 
commoner,"who  in  four  years  had  made  himself  the 
most  famous  Minist^  of  the  world  and  his  nation 
the  most  powerful.  Pitt  was  not  loved  in  Europe, 
but  the  greatness  of  his  action  was  even  more  con- 
spicuous from  the  distant  standpoint  of  foreign  na- 
tions than  from  a  nearer  view.  To  the  enemies  of 
England  and  himself  he  seemed  the  very  personifi- 
cation of  an  unconquerable  and  ruthless  people,  to 
them  it  must  have  seemed  incredible  that  the  organ- 
iser of  such  victories  should  sit  at  the  council  table 
almost  an  alien.  Yet  such  was  the  case.  There  was 
but  one  man  in  the  Ministry  made  illustrious  by  Pitt 
who  was  his  friend ;  the  others  had  felt  his  power 
and  knew  his  talents,  but  not  one  of  them  under- 
stood or  liked  or  trusted  him.  Newcastle  and  Hard- 
wicke  exchanged  volumes  of  secret  criticism  upon 
their  colleague,  Granville  was  old  and  envious,  even 
the  calm  sense  of  Devonshire  preferred  his  fellow- 
duke  to  the  genius  who  was  not  formed  in  the 
familiar  Whiggish  mould.  Bute  and  Mansfield 
watched  with  sinister  complacence  the  quarrel  be- 
tween the  oligarchs  whom  they  despised^  and  the 
national  statesman  whom  they  feared.  Pitt,  in  fact, 
great  though  his  power  had  been  for  a  short  space, 


184  William  Pitt.  [1757- 

had  never  conquered  the  aversion  of  the  Whig  mag- 
nates, and  now  that  he  had  done  his  work  they  were 
willing  enough  to  let  him  go.  For  a  moment  he  had 
imposed  his  dictatorship  upon  the  powerful  class 
which  had  never  recognised  his  credentials.  He  had 
snatched  from  fate  his  hour  of  supremacy.  Before 
the  Cabinet  broke  up  Pitt  delivered  to  his  colleagues 
an  intensely  arrogant  and  intensely  characteristic 
piece  of  eloquence ;  he  knew  that  his  power  had 
other  sources  than  theirs,  and  this  he  told  them  ;  he 
knew  that  his  work  had  been  infinitely  greater  than 
theirs,  and  this  he  told  them.  Even  the  hurried 
memorandum  of  Newcastle  reveals  the  pride,  the 
tone  of  mastership,  of  this  historic  apology  for 
genius. 

"  Mr.  Pitt  recapitulated  his  own  situation  ;  called  as 
he  was  (without  having  ever  asked  any  one  single  employ- 
ment in  his  life)  by  his  sovereign,  and  he  might  say  in 
some  degree  by  the  voice  of  the  people,  to  assist  the 
State,  when  others  had  abdicated  the  service  of  it,  he 
had  gone  through  more  difficulties  than  ever  man  did. 
Though  he  supposed  it  might  be  good  fortune  he  had 
succeeded  in  his  measures  taken  for  the  honour  and  in- 
terest of  the  nation.  In  the  execution  of  those  measures 
he  had  met  with  great  obstruction  from  some  (hinting  at 
principal  persons)  who  did  not  wish  the  success  of  them. 
There  was  hardly  one  expedition  which  he  had  proposed 
though  the  most  probable  and  at  the  last  attended  with 
the  best  success  that  had  not  been  before  treated  as 
chimerical  and  ridiculous.  .  .  .  He  more  than  hinted 
that  the  success  was  singly  owing  to  him.  .  .  .  The 
papers  he  had  in  his  bag  (meaning  my  Lord  Bristol's  let- 
ter and  Mr.  Wall's  paper)  fixed  an  eternal  stain  on  the 


1761]  Pitfs   War  Ministry.  185 

Crown  of  England  if  proper  measures  were  not  taken 
upon  it.  .  .  .  He  would  not  continue  without  having 
the  direction."  * 

Pitt  accepted  from  the  King  a  pension  of  ;^300O 
a  year  for  three,  lives^  and  the  title  Baroness  of 
Chatham  was  conferred  upon  his  wife.  For  a  time 
this  acceptance  by  a  poor  man  of  a  moderate  income 
from  the  nation  which  he  had  served  so  ably  dimmed 
the  lustre  of  his  popularity.  It  was  industriously 
rumoured  that  the  patriot  Minister  had  been  bought, 
and  that  having  accepted  the  bounty  of  the  sovereign 
he  would  no  longer  act  as  the  disinterested  servant 
of  the  people.  Pitt  replied  to  his  traducers  by  a 
dignified  letter,  addressed  to  the  Town  Clerk  of 
London.  '*  Most  gracious  marks  of  His  Majesty's 
approbation  of  my  services  followed  my  resignation ; 
they  are  unmerited  and  unsolicited,  and  I  shall  ever 
be  proud  to  have  received  them  from  the  best  of 
sovereigns."  The  words  of  Edmund  Burke  dispose 
of  the  question  :  ''  With  regard  to  the  pension  and 
title,  it  is  a  shame  that  any  defence  should  be  neces- 
sary." It  is  really  a  testimony  to  the  loftiness  of 
the  public  conception  of  Pitt's  character  that,  in  an 
age  when  pensions  were  so  freely  given,  this  pension 
should  have  excited  any  remark. 

The  glorious  administration  of  one  man  was 
ended.  From  despondency.  Great  Britain  had  been 
raised  to  the  position  of  first  nation  in  the  world  ; 
from  a  condition  of  lethargy  and  confusion  her  army 
and  navy  had  been  urged  to  victory  after  victory  in 

*  British  Museum  Add.  MSS.  32929,  f.  18. 


1 86  William  Pitt.  [1767-1761] 


three  continents  and  on  every  ocean.  The  Ameri- 
can Empire  which  had  been  restricted  to  the  Atlantic 
seaboard  now  stretched  to  the  Ohio  and  controlled 
the  St.  Lawrence.  To  the  north  and  to  the  west 
the  pioneers  of  the  British  race  were  to  receive,  as 
an  inheritance,  a  vast  empire  bounded  by  the  Arctic 
Sea  and  the  Pacific  Ocean.  In  India  a  few  scattered 
factories  had  been  made  into  an  empire  and  both  in 
Bengal  and  the  CajQiatic  the  foundations  of  supreme 
dominion  had  been  surely  laid.  Above  all,  Great 
Britain  had  asserted  more  absolutely  and  more  uni- 
versally than  in  any  previous  era  that  command  of 
the_s£a_jvhich  has  been  at  all  times  the  means  at 
once  of  her  safety  and  of  her  imperial  expansion. 
There  had  been  admirals  as  valiant  as  Hawke  or 
Boscawen,  but  never  before  a  statesman  who  had 
perceived,  as  Pitt  perceived,  that  the  naval  force  of 
Great  Britain  could  be  used  to  isolate  and  conquer 
the  arms  of  her  European  enemies  in  every  part  of 
the  globe.  The  navy  of  France  was  crippled  and 
her  colonies  redjjced,  and  when  Pitt  learned  that 
Spain  had  joined  France  he  saw  that  there  were 
fresh  worlds  to  conquer,  and  that  the  empire  which 
Columbus  had  founded  would  offer  rich  spoils  to  the 
countrymen  of  Raleigh  and  Drake! 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  PEACE   OF   PARIS,    AND   THE   STAMP    ACT. 
1761-1765. 

PITT'S  conduct  after  his  resignation,  said  Burke, 
set  the  seal  upon  his  fame.  The  greatest 
anxiety  was  felt  by  the  Ministers  as  to  the 
effect  of  his  actions  in  the  House,  but  when  the 
House  met  Pitt  "  spoke  moderately  and  not  much 
of  his  own  situation.  Not  a  word  offensive  to  any 
Minister  slipped  from  him  ;  on  the  contrary,  he  spoke 
with  the  greatest  respect  of  those  who  differed  from 
him  in  Council.  In  short,  he  blamed  nobody  but  those 
who  were  for  ending  the  continent  part  of  the  war, 
concerning  whom  he  spoke  with  contempt."'-^  Bute's 
first  aim  was  to  withdraw  from  the  German  war,  and 
George  Grenville  favoured  this  view,  though  he 
dared  not  openly  advocate  withdrawal.  He  hinted 
that  our  success  was  not  owing  to  the  German  war, 
but  that,  said  Pitt,  was  "  only  saying  we  have  con- 
quered in  the  wrong  way."  "  If  you  withdraw 
your  troops  all  France  will  illuminate ;  if  feeble  or 
narrow-minded  measures  take  hold  of  our  councils 

*  Add.  MSS.  32931,  f.  19.  Barrington  to  Newcastle,  Nov.  13,  1761. 

187 


1 88  William  Pitt.  [i76i- 

we  are  undone,  and  I  will  endeavour  to  break  the 
heart  of  him  who  is  so."^  Before  Bute  could  com- 
plete his  plan  for  abandoning  Frederick  the  Spanish 
question  had  become  acute.  When  the  silver  ships 
from  America  had  arrived  the  Court  of  Madrid  as- 
sumed a  more  haughty  attitude,  and  declined  to 
answer  the  English  inquiries  as  to  the  terms  of  its 
treaty  with  France. 

On  the  last  day  of  1761  war  was  declared.  The 
note  delivered  to  Lord  Egremont,  by  the  Spanish 
ambassador,  has  been  described  as  his  Catholic 
Majesty's  declaration  of  war  against  William  Pitt  • 
the  Count  de  Fuentes  was  ordered  to  declare  to  the 
British  King,  to  the  English  nation,  and  to  the 
whole  universe, 

*'  that  the  horrors  into  which  the  Spanish  and  English 
nations  are  going  to  plunge  themselves,  must  be  attri- 
buted only  to  the  pride,  and  to  the  immeasurable  ambition 
of  him  who  has  held  the  reins  of  Government,  and  who 
appears  still  to  hold  them,  although  by  another  hand.  .  .  '. 
The  Spanish  King's  dignity  required  him  to  manifest 
his  just  resentment  of  the  little  management,  or,  to  speak 
more  properly,  of  the  insulting  manner  with  which  all  the 
affairs  of  Spain  have  been  treated  during  Mr.  Pitt's  ad- 
ministration, who,  finding  himself  convinced  of  the  jus- 
tice which  supported  the  King  in  his  pretensions,  his 
ordinary  and  last  answer  was,  that  he  would  not  relax  in 
anything  till  the  Tower  of  London  was  taken,  sword  in 
hand." 

Pitt  had  returned  the  answer  quoted  to  only  one  of 
the  Spanish  demands,  the  claim  to  partake  in   the 

*  Add.  MSS.  32932,  f.  74.  West  to  Newcastle,  Dec.  9,  1761. 


1765]  The  Peace  of  Paris.  189 

Newfoundland  fisheries.  He  referred  in  Parliament 
to  **  the  notion  that  he  had  courted  a  war  with  Spain," 
and  asserted  that  he  had  offered  great  sacrifices  in 
order  to  secure  Spanish  friendship  (an  allusion  to  the 
offer  of  Gibraltar)  and  had  shown  patience  and  long- 
suffering. 

When  the  declaration  of  war  was  announced,  which 
so  singularly  justified  Pitt's  prescience,  he  made  a 
speech  very  creditable  to  his  fame. 

"  The  moment  is  come  when  every  man  ought  to  show 
himself  for  the  whole.  I  do,  said  he,  cruelly  as  I  have 
been  treated  in  pamphlets  and  libels.  And  the  whole  ! 
Be  one  people  !  This  war,  though  it  has  cut  deep  into 
our  pecuniary,  has  augmented  our  military  faculties. 
Set  that  against  the  debt,  that  spirit  which  has  made  us 
what  we  are.  Forget  everything  but  the  public  !  For 
the  public  I  forget  both  my  wrongs  and  my  infirmities."  * 

"With  all  his  faults,"  said  Newcastle,  "we  shall 
want  Mr.  Pitt  if  such  a  complicated,  such  an  exten- 
sive war  is  to  be  carried  on.  I  know  nobody  who 
can  plan,  or  push  the  execution  of  any  plan  agreed 
upon,  in  the  manner  Mr.  Pitt  did."  f 

^he  campaign  which  followed  was  brilliantly  suc- 
cessful. Pitt  himself  had  planned  the  conquests  in 
the  West  Indies.  In  February,  Martinique  was  con- 
quered, :j:  with  the  Caribbean  islands  ;  in  August  the 
Havannah  fell,  the  key  to  Spanish  power  in  Cuba ; 

♦Walpole's  George  III.  ed.  by  E.  Y.  Barker  (1894),  i.,  105. 

f  Add.  MSS.  32931,  f.  45. 

\  **The  single  eloquence  of  Mr.  Pitt  can,  like  an  annihilated  star, 
shine  many  months  after  it  has  set.  I  tell  you  it  has  conquered 
Martinique."     Horace  Walpole  to  Montagu. 


190  William  Pitt.  [i76i- 

in  September,  Ferdinand  won  another  victory  over 
the  French  at  Briickenmiile,  and  in  October,  Ma^nila, 
with  the  Philippines,  was  taken  from  Spaia*r  These 
glorious  results  of  the  policy  he  had  advocated 
raised  still  higher  the  public  confidence  in  Pitt,  but 
the  King  and  Bute,  who,  after  Pitt's  resignation, 
was  all  powerful,  looked  askance  on  the  war  and 
persisted  in  their  desire  for  peace.  The  Bedford 
faction  among  the  Whigs  were  equally  anxious  for 
peace,  and  their  leader  expressed  the  belief  that 
England  was  in  danger  of  over-colonising,  and  that 
her  naval  monopoly  was  as  dangerous  to  the  liberties 
of  Europe  as  French  power  under  Louis  XIV.  had 
been ;  while  Rigby  in  the  Commons  lost  no  oppor- 
tunity of  denouncing  the  German  war.  The  Spanish 
side  of  the  war  was  firmly  supported  by  Bute,  and 
English  ofificers  were  sent  to  organise  the  defence  of 
Portugal,  which  had  refused  to  take  side  with  Spain 
and  had  been  invaded.  Pitt  in  a  delightful  phrase 
said  that  England  should  not  take  the  King  of  Port- 
ugal on  her  back,  but  should  set  him  on  his  feet  and 
put  a  sword  in  his  hand.  It  was  on  the  German 
side  that  Bute  intended  first  to  restrict  the  area  of 
the  war,  and  though  the  subsidy  to  Frederick  was 
paid  at  the  end  of  1761^  notice  was  given  that  the 
convention  would  not  be  again  renewed.  The  ene- 
mies of  £russia  quickly  learned  that  Frederick  was 
to  be  abandon^d.^  On  this  question  Newcastle  and 
Hardwicke,  who  remembered  their  struggles  for  a 
Hanoverian  policy  in  the  last  reign,  differed  from 
Bute,  and  after  submitting  to  many  gross  indignities 
the  old  Whig  chief  on  May  26,  1762,  resigned  his 


1765]  The  Peace  of  Paris.  191 

office  in  the  Ministry  of  which  he  was  the  nominal 
chief.  His  career  had  commenced  when  England 
was  still  excited  over  the  Peace  of  Utrecht,  and  it 
lasted  till  the  eve  of  the  Peace  of  Paris ;  it  began  in 
opposition  to  the  brilliant  Toryism  of  St.  John,  and 
ended  in  collision  with  the  more  practical  but  less 
attractive  absolutism  of  Bute.  Throughout  that 
long  interval  the  Whig  oligarchy  had  ruled  the 
Court  and  the  Parliament,  and  since  the  death  of 
Walpole,  Newcastle  had  been  the  leading  figure 
among  the  political  great  families.  The  resignation 
of  Pitt  ^aye  thejCing  sufficient-_iX)ntrol  over  inter- 
national affairs  ;  the  resignation  of  Newcastle  signal- 
ised the  opening  of  a  grand  struggle_against  the 
Parliamentarj^^systern  by  which  a  few  great  peers 
engrossed  the  governing  power.  Bute  was  at  once 
made  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury.  His  first  lev^e 
was  crowded,  and  members  of  Parliament  who  had 
been  elected  under  Newcastle's  auspices  vied  with 
bishops  to  whom  Newcastle  had  given  their  sees  in 
devotion  to  the  new  Minister."^^ 

The  remarkable  pamphlet  published  in  1761  by 
Lord  Bath,  entitled  Seasonable  Hints  from  an  Honest 
Man,  stated  the  argument  of  George  HL's  policy 
almost  as  plausibly  as  Bath's  former  teacher  Boling- 
broke  could  have  stated  it.  The  bystander,  specu- 
lating on  national  politics,  has  always  remarked  that 
there  is  no  deep  and  abiding  principle  of  party 
division.     Bath  had  been  leader  of  the  Whigs  who 


*  An  excellent  mot  on  the  conduct  of  the  bishops  is  attributed  to 
Newcastle.  "  Bishops,  like  other  people,"  said  he,  "  too  often  for- 
get their  Maker." 


192  William  Pitt.  [trel- 

overthrew  Walpole,  and  his  opposition  to  the  great 
Whig  had  been  based  on  the  principles  of  the  Rev- 
olution. He  now  contended  that  the  principles  of 
the  Revolution  were  universally  accepted,  and  that 
Tories  themselves  were  friends  of  the  Hanoverian 
Succession,  were  believers  in  the  Established  Church 
and  in  the  toleration  of  religious  dissent.  Such  be- 
ing the  case,  the  Tories  should  be  equally  eligible 
for  the  work  of  Government,  the  King  should  be 
permitted  to  choose  his  servants  from  all  sections  of 
the  nation.  But  before  this  could  be  done,  it  would 
be  necessary  for  the  King  to  "  break  all  factions, 
connections,  and  confederacies,"  to  free  himself  from 
the  leading-strings  in  which  the  Whig  oligarchy  had 
put  his  predecessors.  George  HI.  cherished  the 
noble  ambition  of  being  sovereign  over  a  united 
people.  The  evil  of  the  Whig  domination  was  in 
the  proscription  of  a  large  part  of  the  nation,  and  it 
was  a  generous  design  of  the  King's  to  call  back 
from  their  exile  a  number  of  his  subjects.  But  his 
plan  was  based  upon  royal  supremacy ;  his  benevo- 
lence flowed  from  a  royal  will,  and  would  exercise 
itself  through  the  channels  of  monarchical  influence. 
While  he  desired  that  his  people  should  be  united, 
he  desired  still  more  earnestly  that  he  should  be 
supreme  sovereign  in  all  departments  of  Govern- 
ment. The  system  of  the  Whigs  had  been  narrow 
and  selfish,  but  they  had  always  acted  through  the 
Parliament,  they  were  identified  with  a  Parliament- 
ary constitution,  they  had  established  the  sovereign- 
ty of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  they  held  the 
reins  of  that  sovereignty  in  their  own  hands.     It  was 


1765]  The  Peace  of  Paris.  193 

evident,  therefore,  that  the  King  could  only  earry  out 
his  plan  of  reviving  monarchical  supremacy  if  he 
secured  the  interest  and  support  of  those  who  con- 
trolled the  House  of  Commons.  If  the  entire  body 
of  Whigs  had  been  faithful  to  the  principles  of  their 
creed,  if  they  had  been  united  in  one_ party,  they 
could  have  defeated  the  King's  aim  of  ruling  by 
Ministers  of  his  own  choice.  But  their  division  into 
connections  held  together  by  ties  of  birth,  competing 
one  against  the  other  for  the  spoils  of  ofifice,  enabled 
the  King  to  play  off  one  faction  against  the  other. 
He  became  the  powerful  arbiter.  A  yet  more  effect- 
ive method  of  undermining  the  supremacy  of  Parlia- 
ment was  also  borrowed  from  the  Whig  code  of 
political  strategy^.  A  party  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons under  direct  command  was  secured  by  nomi- 
nating members  for  the  Treasury  boroughs,  which 
had  previously  been  the  province  of  the  First  Lord, 
and  this  was  the  nucleus  of  the  body  known  as 
King's  friends,  who  voted  as  the  sovereign  pleased. 
Hitherto,  "  the  Court  "  had  meant  the  supporters  of 
Government,  but  George  HI.  was  himself  the  leader 
of_a^party_^  and  the  friends  of  the  Court  were  distinct 
from  the  friends  of  the  Minister.  Corruption  in  all 
its  forms,  from  the  gift  of  a  bank-note  to  the  promo- 
tion of  a  relative,  was  freely  practised  in  order  to 
enlarge  and  consolidate  the  King's  party,  and  any 
offensive  display  of  independence  was  promptly  and 
openly  punished.  The  scrupulously  moral  King 
never  hesitated  to  use  bad  men  as  his  instruments, 
and  felt  no  shame  in  corrupting  the  representatives 
of  his  people. 


l94  William  Pitt.  \X7^\~ 

The  first  achievement  on  which  the  King  was  set 
was  the  CQnpluaion_Q.^  peace.  In  the  year  which  pro- 
duced the  greatest  victories  of  the  war  the  sovereign 
and  his  Minister  were  thinkirrg  only  of  peace.  Hav- 
ing decided  to  abandon  Frederick,  Bute  had  removed 
the  difficulty  which  had  proved  insurmountable  in 
the  negotiation  of  Pitt  with  Choiseul,  and  the  imme- 
diate victories  of  the  navy  soon  convinced  France 
that  the  Spanish  alHance  was  of  no  great  value, 
while  Spain^found-Aat  sheaioiildnot  conquer  Portu- 
gal, and  that  her  great  colonial  possessions  were  ex- 
posed. The  conduct  of  Bute  was  not  likely  to 
convince  the  enemies  of  Great  Britain  that  they 
must  submit  to  ignominious  terms.  During  1762, 
he  attempted  to  renew  negotiations  through  the 
Sardinian  Ambassadors  at  London  and  Paris,  the 
Count  de  Viri  and  the  Bailli  de  Solar,  and  through 
this  channel  Choiseul  was  acquainted  with  the  dis- 
sensions in  the  British  Cabinet.  Bute  also  instructed 
Sir  J.  Yorke  to  treat  privately  with  the  Court  of 
Vienna,  without  the-knnwledge  of  Prussia  —  a  dis- 
ingenuous action  which  enraged  Frederick  when  he 
heard  of  it  —  and  actually  stated  to  M.Alt,  Minister 
of  Hesse  at  St.  James's,  ''  that  we  are  unable  to  go 
on  with  the  war."'^  He  was  also  accused  of  urging 
on  the  Russian  ambassador  in 'England  that  Russia 
should  remain  firm  to  the  Austrian  Alliance,  in  order 
that  Prussia  might  be  intimidated  into  peace.  (Thus 
France  and  Spain,  while  depressed  by  defeat,  were 
buoyed  up  by  the  knowledge  that  the  chief  Minister 

*  See  RockUtgham  Memoirs,  i.,  97,  98.  Bute  himself  denied  these 
accusations  :     Bisset's  Mitchell,  ii.,  299. 


1765]  The  Peace  of  Paris.  195 

of  Great  Britain  was  determined  on  peace.  In  his 
relations  with  other  politicians  Bute  had  no  difficulty 
in  securing  a  strong  peace  party.  Though  he  had 
quarrelled  with  the  leading  Whigs,  who  were  in  the 
direct  apostoIIcaT'sTiccession,  and  though  Pitt  and 
the  trading  classes  were  against  him,  he  had  the 
hearty  suppott^of^the  Bedfgrds  and_Fox^nd  had 
broken  the  ranks  of  Pitt's  old  allies  by  securing 
George  Grenville,  who  on  Newcastle's  resignation 
had  been  made  Secretary  of  State.  Grenville  had 
held  an  important  place  in  Pitt's  Ministry,  but  he 
now  discovered  that  the  war  was  mistaken  and  dis- 
advantageous, and  lost  no  opportunity  of  denounc- 
ing it.  When  negotiations  were  formally  renewed, 
Bedford  was  sent  to  Paris  as  special  envoy  (Septem- 
ber, 1762)  and  the  Due  de  Nivernois  came  to  Lon- 
don. (Bedford  had  been  more  eager  for  concessions 
to  France  and  Spain  than  Bute  himself,  and  was  even 
desirous  that  the  Havannah  should  be  restored  to 
Spain  without  compensation.  On  this,  however,  he 
was  overruled,  and  through  the  influence  of  Grenville 
Florida_was  secured  as  compensation  for  the  richest 
possession  of  Spain.  The  negotiations  were  quickly 
brought  to  a  conclusion,  and  preliminaries  arranged. 

The  peace,  accepted  after  a  year  of  splendid  vic--^ 
tory,  was  less  advantageous  than  that  rejected  by 
Pitt.      France  restored  Minorca    and    ceded ,  NQva_ 
Scotia,  Cap^Breton,  Cajia^a,  the  islands  of  Grenada, 
together  with  Senegal,  and  evacuated  all  conquests 
belonging  to  Hanover,  Hesse,  Brunswick,  and  Prus:^ 
sia :  at  the  same  time,  it  was  agreed  that  the  British 
and    French    armies    should    be    withdrawn    from 


196  *      William  Pill.  [1761- 

Germany.  In  India,  conquests  made  by  either  nation 
since  1749  were  restored,  and  France  engaged  not 
to  erect  fortifications  in  Bengal.  (The  Haxannah 
was  restored  to  Spain  in  exchange  for  Florid^ 
Portugal  was  restored  to  the  status  quo  ante  bellum. 
Gaudajmipe,  Belle_JLsle,  Desidejade,  Mariegalante, 
Martinico,  St.  Lucia,  and  Goree  were  restored  to 
France.  The  Newfoundland  fishery  was  permitted 
to  France  exactly  as  on  the  terms  of  Utrecht,  and 
in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  at  a  distance  of  three 
leagues  from  British  coasts.  Two  islands,  St^_Pi,erre 
and  Miquelon,  were  granted  as  a  shelter  for  French 
fishermen.  Dunkirk  was  to  be  reduced.  Spain 
withdrew  the  claims  made  on  Great  Britain,  and  the 
latter  agreed  to  demolish  the  fortresses  erected  on 
the  bay  of  Honduras,  where  the  British  right  to  cut 
logwood  was"  acknowledged,  j  There  were  important 
differences  between  the  terms  of  Pitt  and  Bute. 
With  regard  to  Prussia,  Pitt  stipulated  for  the  evac- 
uation of  all  fortresses  conquered  by  France  from 
Frederick,  and  the  right  of  both  France  and  Great 
Britain  to  assist  their  allies  ;  Bute  agreed  to  with- 
draw British  troops  from  the  Prussian  cause.  Bute 
restored  Martijiique  and  Goree  without  coinpensa- 
tion,  relaxed  some  of  the  fishery  conditions,  but 
secured  a  wider  delimitation  of  Canadian  boundaries. 
In  India  Pitt  had  proposed  to  leave  the  settlement 
to  the  French  and  Ejagiish  companies. 

The  peace  is  one  of  the  great  epochsJii_the^]rowth 

^  the  British_^jTi^re,  and  the  acquisitions  under  it 

were  vast.      Carteret,  on  his  death-bed,  chanted  a 

paean  of  praise  and  rejoicing  over  the  glory  of  his 


1765]  The  Peace  of  Paris.  197 

country.  Yet  the  announcement  of  its  terms  occa- 
sioned great  popular  discontent  ;  the  trading  classes 
were  enragedjthatjthe  monopolies  they  anticipated 
were  not  maintained  ;  politicians,  acquainted  with 
the  papers  in  Pitt's  negotiation,  saw  with  amaze- 
ment that  France  came  off  the  better  for  an  extra 
year  of  defeat.  ,The  army  and  navy  knew  that  the 
conquest  of  Martinique  and  the  Havannah  had  cost 
many  gallant  lives,  yet  both  were  restored,  and  to 
the  amazement  of  all  it  was  found,  when  news  of  the 
conquest  of  Manilla  arrived,  that  no  stipulation  had 
been  made  for  compensating  that  conquest,  and  the 
Philippines  were  handed  back  to  Spain  in  exchange 
for  a  ransom  that  was  never  paid.  The  situation  re- 
sembled that  after  the  signing  of  tjie  treaty  of  Utrecht ; 
in  both  cases  a  glorious  war  was  followed  by  anjjn- 
satisfact^ry  peace,  h\it  in  reality  the  latter  peace  was 
more  open  to  criticism,  as  it  was  easier  for  Great 
Britain  to  maintain  colonial  acquisitions  than  to  im- 
prove Continental  victories,  and  of  more  vital  impor- 
tance both  to  her  trade  and  to  her  maritime  power 
that  she  should  retain  every  such  advantage  won. 
Choiseul  is  entitled  to  the  gratitude  of  his  country- 
men for  the  way  he  conducted  the  negotiation; 
Pitt  perhaps  aimed  too  high,  but  Bute,  Bedford,  and 
the  King  allowed  legitimate  advantages  to  slip 
through  their  hands,  and  weakly  surrendered  much 
which  the  valour  of  Brjtishjorceg.  had  won.  If  Pitt 
had  remained  in  ofifice  and  had  received  the  support 
of  George  III.  there  is  little  doubt  that  Cuba  and 
the  Philippines  would  have  been  added  to  the  British 
Empire.     Dis  aliter  visum,   / 


William  Pitt.  [i761- 


Having  made  his  bargain,  it  was  necessary  for 
Bute  to  obtain  the  approval  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  the  unpopularity  of  the  peace,  together 
with  the  declared  disapproval  of  the  most  eminent 
Whigs,  made  it  necessary  to  take  strong  precautions 
against  adverse  action  by  the  House.  The  irony  of 
his  fate  made  the  former  rival  of  Pitt,  Henry  Fox, 
the  chief  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  King  at  this 
time.  A  strong,  unscrupulous,  and  able  leader  was 
required  to  face  PitlJ^n  th^  House.  George  Gren- 
ville  was  not  powerful  enough  for  such  an  occasion, 
and  himself  thought  the  peace  inadequate.  Fo^i  was 
the  only  man  of  sufificient  authority  ;  his  will  was 
strong,  his  conscience  flexible ;  he  reverenced  no 
political  principles  and  never  pretended  that  he  did. 
His  great  ability  and  power,  coupled  with  the  ab- 
sence of  all  scruple,  made  him  an  ideal  ruler  of  the 
House  from  Bute's  point  of  view.  Lord  Shelburne 
made  his  entrance  into  politics  by  arranging  the 
terms  agreed  upon  between  Bute  and  Fox  ;  Fox  was 
to  be  leader  in  the  House,  to  enter  the  Cabinet,  to 
retain  his  office  as  Paymaster  and  after  the  approval 
of  the  peace  to  receive  a  peerage  as  his  reward. 
George  Grenville,  displaced  from  the  leadership, 
took  the  minor  office  of  the  First  Lord  of  the  Ad- 
miralty. His  union  with_fiute_  lost  Fox  his  chief 
political  friendships,  as  both  Cumberland  and  Devon- 
shire, two  of  the  most  honourable  men  in  politics, 
disapproved  the  peace  and  despised  Bute.  Lord 
Waldegrave,  to  whom  Fox  also  applied  for  support, 
declined  to  have  anything  to  do  with  the  new  coali- 
tion. *'  Had  the  peace  been  instantaneously  proposed 


HENRY  FOX. 

FROM  THE  PAINTING  BY  BENTLEY. 


1765]  The  Peace  of  Paris.  199 

to  the  House  of  Commons,  there  is  no  question  but 
it  would  have  been  rejected  ;  so  strong  a  disgust 
was  taken  at  the  union  of  Bute  and  Fox."^  Es- 
tranged from  the  most  high-minded  of  the  Whigs, 
Fox  threw  himself  into  the  service  of  Bute  with  great 
ardour,  and  energetic  means  were  adopted  to  secure 
support  and  silence  opposition.  Money  was  openly 
given  at  an  office  specially  reserved  for  the  purpose 
to  members  of  Parliament,  votes  ranging  in  value 
from  the  siTm  of  ;^200  upwards,  and  the  total  amount 
expended  in  this  manner  reached  ;^25,ooo.  Those 
who  opposed  the  new  Government  were  dismissed 
from  any  offices  they  held ;  the  greatest  names 
among  the  Whigs,  Devonshire,  Newcastle,  and  Rock- 
ingham, were  removed  from  the  list  of  Lord  Lieu- 
tenants, and  Devonshire  was  struck  off  the  Privy 
Council.  Fox  even  desired  to  remove  his  ojD^onents 
from  places  which  by  th^ii^atents_were  expressly 
granted  for  life.  The  proscription  included  all  who 
were  related  to  the  rebellious  chieftains,  and  no  man 
was  too  poor  to  escape  deprivation  of  his  place  or 
pension  if  he  was  known  to  be  dependent  on  New- 
castle or  Devonshire.  Fox  was  very  thorough,  he 
knew  his  world,  and  was  confident  that  fierce  per- 
secution, while  it  made  a  few  martyrs,  would  cre- 
ate many  friends.  "  You  will  have  thousands,"  he 
wrote  to  Bute,f  '*  who  will  think  the  safety  of  them- 
selves depends  upon  your  Lordship,  and  will  there- 
fore be  sincere  and  active  friends."  The  Commons 
rallied    to    the    Court,  and    the  peerage  kissed   the 

*  Walpole's  Memoirs  of  George  III.^  i.,  156. 
t  Fitzmaurice's  Shelburne,  i.,  180. 


200  William  Pitt. 


[1761- 


rod.     Only  a  small  minority  remained  true  to  their 
convictions. 

In  the  midst  of  this  exciting  episode  Pitt's  posi- 
tion was  a  remarkable  one.  His  attitude  towards  the 
policy  of  the  King  and  Bute  was  not  so  entirely  hos- 
tile as  that  of  the  traditional  Whigs.  He  had  never 
been  averse  from  the  Tories,  had  mixed  with  them 
in  his  Leicester  House  days,  and  had  received  their 
support  during  his  administration.  The  very  fact 
that  he  was  without  faniil^^^cgrmertion  himself  made 
him  rather  scornful  of  the  little  groups  into  which  the 
Whig  party  was  divided,  and  though  a  more  eloquent 
expounder  of  the  principles  of  the  Revolution  never 
spoke  in  the  House  of  Commons,  yet  Pitt  was  never 
absorbed  into  any  coterie  of  the  Whigs.  Just  as 
Cromwell  shook  off  many  tenets  of  the  Parliamentary 
party  and  outgrew  the  precision  of  sectaries,  so  Pitt 
was  too  _se_lf-reliant  tQ_i:£gulate  his  politicaLcjgnduct 
and  conceptions  according  to  tjie^^xact-standard  of 
the  Pelhams  or  Cavendishes.  There  are  men  who 
never  take  part  in  any  revolution,  who  nevertheless 
may  be  called  revolutionary,  men  of  such  fiery  spirit 
and  conviction  that  even  the  love  of  established 
order,  and  all  that  is  involved  in  it,  would  not  deter 
them  from  fierce  action  in  any  time  of  stress.  Such 
an  one  was  Pitt,  a  man  whose  words,  theatrical  as 
they  seemed  at  times,  always  represented  the  deep- 
est realities  to  himself,  whose  love  of  liberty  meant 
that  he  would  have  gone  with  a  glad  spirit  to  the 
scaffold,  whose  patriotism  was_a  burning  passion. 
This  depth  and  ardour  separated  him  from  the 
Whigs,   who  were   the  coldest   of   politicians,    who 


1765]  The  Peace  of  Paris.  201 

when  they  imagined  the  Constitution  in  danger  were 
satisfied  if  some  man  of  good  family  uttered  a  gen- 
tlemanhke  protest  in  the  Commons.  Pitt  never 
really  gave  his  entire  adhesion  to  the  Whig  party, 
and  that  party  never  trusted  him.  But  if  he  sym- 
pathised with  the  King's  ideas  on  the  subject  of 
party,  he  was  a  most  determined  opponent  of  the 
system  by  which  Bute  was  attempting  to  annihilate 
the  influence  of  Parliament,  and  meant  to  arraign 
the  peace  inflexibly. 

After  the  dismissal  of  Devonshire  an  attempt  was 
made  to  organise  a  constitutjonal  oppositipn.  New- 
castle and  Hardwicke  were  in  close  contact  with 
the  Duke  of  Cumberland  and  the  latter,  who  had 
never  been  blind  to  Pitt's  strength,  though  he  had 
opposed  his  policy,  was  now  perfectly  willing  to  act 
with  the  popular  leader.  Thomas  Walpole  was  sent 
to  ascertain  Pitt's  sentiments,  in  order  that  he  might 
be  persuaded  to  act  in  concert  with  the  opposition 
Whigs  in  Parliament.  Many  such  emissaries  were 
dispatched  to  Pitt  in  following  years,  and  they 
always  found  the  statesman  dififlcult  and  perverse 
in  negotiation.  Pitt  would  receive  such  messengers 
in  state,  enthroned  amidst  all  the  majesty  of  invalid- 
ism, and  would  deliver  an  impressive  harangue  on 
his  own  pathetic  circumstances  and  the  unhappy  fate 
of  his  country,  but  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  mat- 
ter remained  confused  and  indefinite.  Possibly  his 
distrust  of  party  government  arose  in  part  from  the 
fact  that  he  never  possessed  any  party  following  of 
his  own.  To  Thomas  Walpole  his  reply  was  in- 
tensely characteristic.     Lately  he  said  he  had  been 


202  William  Pitt.  [1761- 

applied  to  by  persons  of  high  rank  to  concur  with 
Bute,  with  offers  much  above  his  deserts.  He  had 
told  them  that  Lord  Bute  would  not  expect  him  to 
concur  in  the  transcendency  of  power  his  Lordship 
had  arrived  at.  On  the  day  of  his  Majesty's  acces- 
sion he  had  told  Lord  Bute  that  his  advancement 
would  not  be  for  the  King's  service,  and  had  repeated 
that  opinion  when  Lord  Bute  came  to  tell  him  he 
had  received  the  seals  as  Secretary  of  State.  Now 
that  Lord  Bute  was  arrived  at  the  fulness  of  power, 
he  insulted  the  nobility,  intimidated  the  gentry,  and 
trampled  on  the  people.  He  would  never  contribute 
to  that  yoke  Lord  Bute  was  laying  on  the  neck  of 
the  people.  He  blamed  Devonshire,  Newcastle,  and 
Hardwicke  for  their  disposition  to  the  peace,  and 
passed  some  strictures  on  the  treaty. 

"  Mr.  Pitt  then  returned  to  the  domestic  part — ex- 
pressing his  apprehension  that  the  distinction  of  Whig 
and  Tory  was  rising  as  high  as  ever  ;  that  he  lay  under 
great  obHgations  to  many  gentlemen  who  had  been  of  the 
denomination  of  Tories,  but  who,  during  his  share  of 
the  administration,  had  supported  the  Government  upon 
the  principles  of  Whiggism  and  of  the  Revolution  ;  that 
he  would  die  a  Whig,  and  support  invariably  those  prin- 
ciples ;  yet  he  would  concur  in  no  proscriptive  measures  ; 
and  though  it  was  necessary  Lord  Bute  should  be  re- 
moved ...  he  might  not  think  it  quite  for  his  Maj- 
esty's service  to  have  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  secured 
there.  .  .  .  With  regard  to  himself,  he  had  felt  inex- 
pressible anxieties  at  holding  office  against  the  good- 
will of  the  Crown  ;  that  he  would  never  put  himself  in 
that  situation,  nor  accept  of  any  employment  whilst  his 


1766]  The  Peace  of  Paris.  203 

Majesty  had  that  opinion  of  him  which  he  was  ac- 
quainted with."  * 

The  preliminaries_of_2eace_were  signed  on  Novem- 
ber 3d  and  Parliament  m£l_on_the^25tiL_  A  great 
mo'B'^owded  from  Charing  Cross  to  Parliament 
Square,  and  Bute  was  grossly  insulted  on  his  way  to 
and  from  the  House  of  Lords.  A  noble  battle  was 
expected  between  the  forces  of  Bute  and  the  Dukes, 
but  the  greatest  curiosity  was  felt  as  to  Pitt's  con- 
duct. On  December  5th,  Thomas  Hervey  wrote  to 
Pitt: 

"  When  I  read  the  preliminaries  of  our  precipitated 
peace,  I  could  not  avoid  saying  what  Antony  says  over 
the  corpse  of  his  friend  Caesar  —  Alas,  great  Pitt !  Are 
all  thy  conquests,  glories,  trophies,  spoils,  shrunk  to  this 
little  measure  ?  .  .  .  What  part  you  intend  to  take 
upon  this  emergency  is  a  point  that  puzzles  our  ablest 
politicians.  New  rumours  and  surmises  are  daily  set  on 
foot  and  circulated,  and  they  are  agreed  in  nothing,  but 
their  impatience  for  the  event.  You  are  still  beloved 
and  reverenced  by  the  patriot  band,  and  still  possessed 
of  a  dignity  never  conferred  on  any  other  man  ;  that  of 
being  deemed  and  even  called  the  People's  Minister."  f 

Chesterfield  anticipated  a  stormy  session,  "  if  Mr. 
Pitt  takes  an  active  part ;  but  if  he  be  pleased,  as  the 
Ministers  say  he  is,  there  is  no  other  ^olus  to  blow 
a  storm.  The  Dukes  of  Cumberland,  Newcastle  and 
Devonshire   have   no  better  troops  to  attack  with 

*  Rockingham  Memoirs,  i.,  149,  150.  *'  Mr.  Pitt  aflfected  to  be  a 
Chief  without  a  party,  and  the  party  without  him  had  no  other 
Chief."     Walpole's  i)/<?W(?z>J  George  III. ^i.^  i^^. 

\  Chatham  Correspondence,  ii.,  197,  198. 


204  William  Pitt, 


[1761- 


than  the  militia;  but  Pitt  alone  is  ipse  agmen.'' ^ 
On  December  9th  both  Houses  were  moved  to  ex- 
press approbation  of  the  peace.  In  the  Lords,  Bute 
and  Mansfield  made  an  able  defence,  and  the  motion 
was  carried  without  a  division,  though  Hardwicke 
declared  that  the  treaty  was  *'  worse  than  could  have 
been  obtained  the  last  year."  In  the  Commons  there 
was  a  crowded  attendance,  but  it  was  noticed  when 
the  sitting  opened  that  the  great  commoner  was  not 
present.  Fox  had  purchased  his  majority,  but  even 
he  must  have  felt  some  anxiety  about  the  effect  of 
that  oratory  which  so  many  times  had  dominated 
the  representatives  of  the  English  people.  A  mo- 
tion was  made  by  Beckford  to  refer  the  preliminaries 
to  a  Committee  of  the  whole  House,  evidently  with 
the  intention  of  gaining  time.  While  this  was  being 
discussed,  a  great  shout  of  applause  was  heard  from 
the  lobby. 

"The  doors  opened,  and  at  the  head  of  a  large  ac- 
claiming concourse  was  seen  Mr.  Pitt,  borne  in  the  arms 
of  his  servants,  who,  setting  him  down  within  the  bar,  he 
crawled  by  the  help  of  a  crutch,  and  with  the  assistance 
of  some  few  friends,  to  his  seat  ;  not  without  the  sneers 
of  some  of  Fox's  party.  In  truth,  there  was  a  mix- 
ture of  the  very  solemn  and  the  theatric  in  this  appari- 
tion. The  moment  was  so  well  timed,  the  importance 
of  the  man  and  his  services,  the  languor  of  his  emaci- 
ated countenance  and  the  study  bestowed  on  his  dress, 
were  circumstances  that  struck  solemnity  into  a  patriot 
mind,  and  did  a  little  furnish  ridicule  to  the  hardened 
and  insensible.     He  was  dressed  in  black  velvet,  his  legs 


*  Chatham  Correspondence,  ii.,  196. 


1765]  The  Peace  of  Paris,  205 

and  thighs  wrapped  in  flannel,  his  feet  covered  with 
buskins  of  black  cloth,  and  his  hands  with  thick 
gloves."  * 

Pitt's  speech  was  a  masterly  survey  of  the  various 
questions_raised  by  the  treaty,  and  condemned  it 
unstmtedly.  But  it  was  not  one  of  his  greatest 
efforts  in  oratory,  and  through  his  weakness  was 
in  part  delivered  sitting.  The  speech  f  reveals  his 
commercial  ideas,  which  were  those  of  his  day.  He 
believed  in  monopoly,  and  there  was  no  suggestion 
in  his  mind  of  modern  free-trade  ideas.  His  system 
was  a  simple  one  ;  he  would  conquer  the  territory  of 
his  commercial  rival  and  rigorously  exclude  all  for- 
eign traders  from  the  trade  centres.  Thus  he  said 
that  the  war  had  given  us  possession  of  the  four 
French  trades.  Newfoundland,  the  West  Indies, 
Africa,  and  India — such  conquests  ought  to  give  the 
fisheries,  sugar,  and  slave-trade  and  the  trade  of  the 
Indies  exclusively  to  Great  Britain.  The  surrender 
of  her  islands  as  shelter  for  French  fishermen  would 
enable  France  to  recover  her  marine.  "  In  the  ne- 
gotiation he  had  with  M.  de  Bussy,  he  had  acqui- 
esced in  the  cession  of  St.  Pierre  only  ;  after  having 
several  times  in  vain  contended  for  the  whole  exclu- 
sive fishery  ;  but  he  was  overruled,  not  by  the  for- 
eign enemy,  but  by  another  enemy."  He  ridiculed 
the  idea  that  Florida  was  proper  compensation  for 
the  Havannah,  the  conquest  of  which,  he  said,  he 
had  himself  designed.      He  had   been  blamed   for 

*  Walpole's  Memoirs  of  George  III.,  i.,  176. 
f  The  accepted  version  of  the  speech  is  in  Almon,  marked  M.  S. 
Horace  Walpole  gives  an  account  in  George  III.,  i.,  175  et  seq. 


2o6  William  Pitt,  [1761- 

giving  up  Guadaloupe,  but  Martinique  also  was  now- 
ceded.  '*  Why  did  they  permit  the  forces  to  conquer 
Martinique  if  they  were  resolved  to  restore  it  ? " 
St.  Lucia,  which  was  restored  to  France,  was  the 
only  valuable  one  of  the  neutral  islands.  The  fol- 
lowing passage,  full  of  the  prevalent  theories  of  the 
mercantile  system,  states  Pitt's  theory  of  colonies 
and  commerce  : 

"  The  Ministers  seem  to  have  lost  sight  of  the  great 
fundamental  principle,  that  France  is  chiefly,  if  not  sole- 
ly, to  be  dreaded  by  us  in  the  light  of  a  maritime  and 
commercial  power  ;  and  therefore  by  restoring  to  her 
all  the  valuable  West  Indian  islands,  and  by  our  conces- 
sions in  the  Newfoundland  fishery,  we  have  given  to  her 
the  means  of  recovering  her  prodigious  losses,  and  of 
becoming  once  more  formidable  to  us  at  sea.  The  fish- 
ery trained  up  an  innumerable  multitude  of  young  sea- 
men, and  the  West  Indian  trade  employed  them  when 
trained.  After  the  peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  France 
gained  a  dreaded  superiority  over  us  in  this  lucrative 
branch  of  commerce,  and  supplied  almost  all  Europe 
with  the  rich  commodities  which  are  produced  only  in 
that  part  of  the  world.  By  this  commerce  she  enriched 
her  merchants  and  augmented  her  finances.  The  state  of 
the  existing  trade  in  the  conquests  of  North  America  is 
extremely  low  ;  the  speculations  as  to  the  future  trade 
are  precarious,  and  the  prospect,  at  the  very  best,  is  low. 
We  stand  in  need  of  supplies  which  will  have  an  effect 
certain,  speedy  and  considerable.  The  retaining  both 
or  even  one  of  the  considerable  French  islands,  Marti- 
nique or  Guadaloupe,  will,  and  nothing  else  can,  effect- 
ually answer  this  triple  purpose.  The  advantage  is 
immediate.     It   is  a  matter  not   of   conjecture  but   of 


17661  The  Peace  of  Paris.  207 

account.  The  trade  with  these  conquests  is  of  the  most 
hicrative  nature,  and  of  the  most  considerable  extent  ; 
the  number  of  ships  employed  by  it  are  a  great  resource 
to  our  maritime  power  ;  and  what  is  of  equal  weight,  all 
that  we  gain  on  this  system  is  made  four-fold  to  us  by  the 
loss  which  ensues  to  France'' 

It  ^  interesting  to  compare  this  passage  with 
words  written  by  Pitt  to  Sir  Benjamin  Keene  at  the 
beginning  of  his  Ministry,  in  which  he  bewails  that 
the  balance  of  power  is  overthrown,  and  the  Barrier 
Treaty  no  more,  which  had  seemed  to  English  states- 
men, in  the  days  of  Louis  XIV.,  the  indispensable 
defence  against  French  expansion.  Pitt's  expres- 
sion of  despair  was  the  last  echo  of  that  creed.  The 
war  had  as  it  were  changed  the  scene  of  the  ancient 
rivalry  between  France  and  England  ;  in  directing  a 
great  policy,  Pitt  had  learnt  that  the  balance  of 
power  in  the  Old  World  might  be  redressed  in  the 
New,  and  that  the  barrier  treaties  of  Europe  were 
less  important  to  England  than  the  expanding  fron- 
tiers of  her  own  colonial  empire.  While  the  com- 
mercial theories  of  the  speech  were  based  on  an 
economic  ideal  that  had  served  its  purpose  and  was 
becoming  obsolete,  the  foundation  of  its  political 
argument  was  the  statement  that  her  colonies,  her 
sea-power,  and  her  commerce  were  the  true  bases  on 
which  the  greatness  of  England  should  be  builded, 
the  intermingling  springs  which  should  feed  the 
great  stream  of  her  abounding  energy  and  life. 

In  another  very  interesting  passage,  Pitt  dealt 
with  the  European  situation.  It  had  been  urged 
that  the  German  war  had  overturned  the  balance  of 


2o8  William  Pitt. 


tl761- 


power  sought  for  in  the  reigns  of  William  and  Anne. 
Pitt  answered  that  since  those  days  France  had  de- 
clined so  as  to  be  no  longer  a  terror  to  Europe,  and 
that  the  military  power  of  the  Dutch  had  been  ex- 
tinguished. Two  great  Powers  had  started  up. 
That  of  Russia  "  moves  in  its  own  orbit  extrinsic- 
ally  of  all  other  systems ;  but  gravitating  to  each 
according  to  the  mass  of  attracting  interests  it  con- 
tains"—  a  description  as  true  of  Russia  in  the  nine- 
teenth as  in  the  eighteenth  century.  "Another 
Power,  against  all  human  expectation,  was  raised  in 
the  House  of  Brandenburg,  and  the  rapid  successes 
of  his  Prussian  Majesty  prove  him  to  be  the  natural 
assertor  of  Germanic  liberties  against  the  House  of 
Austria"  —  a  prophecy  fulfilled  on  the  field  of  Sad- 
owa.  Pitt  described  the  desertion  of  Prussia  as 
insidious,  tricking,  base,  and  treacherous.  Bute  de- 
fended it  on  the  technical  ground  that  Great  Brit- 
ain only  bound  herself  to  pay  the  subsidy  year  by 
year  and  was  not  pledged  to  continue  it  indefinitely, 
and  also  argued  that  as  by  the  death  of  Elizabeth, 
Russia  had  become  first  friendly  to  Prussia,  and  on 
the  accession  of  Catherine  neutral,  the  situation  was 
altogether  changed.*  But  the  ungenerous  character 
of  his  policy  towards  an  ally  who  had  suffered  so 
much  could  not  be  concealed,  and  Frederick  never 
trusted  Great  Britain  again.  Pitt  left  the  House 
after  his  speech  and  was  again  loudly  cheered  by  the 
crowd  in  the  lobby.  When  the  House  divided,  319 
approved  the  peace  and  only  sixty-five  voted  in  the 

*  Bute's  defence  may  be  read  in  his  dispatch  to  Mitchell  (May  26, 
1762) :  Bisset's  Memoirs  of  Sir  Andrew  Mitchell  {i2>^o),  ii,,  294. 


Copyright 


AUGUSTA,     PRINCESS  OF  WALES. 

FROM  THE  PAINTING  BY  J.  VAN  LOO. 


Gibbings  &  Co. 


^^\BRAT^ 


OF  THE 


UNIVERSITY 

OF 


1765]  The  Peace  of  Paris,  209 

minority.  So  great  was  the  power  of  Fox  and  the 
Treasury.  ''The  Ministers,"  wrote  Walpole,  '*  or- 
dered that  the  numbers  on  the  question  should  be 
printed — had  they  printed  the  names  too,  the  world 
would  have  known  the  names  of  the  sixty-five  that 
were  not  bribed."  *'  Now,"  said  the  Princess  Dow- 
ager, "  my  son  is  King  of  England." 

The  remainder  of  the  session  was  very  stormy, 
owing  to  the  incapacity  of  Sir  Francis  Dashwood, 
the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  The  main  feature 
of  his  financial  measures  was  the  tax  on  cider,  which 
he  is  said  to  have  adopted  because  he  could  not  un- 
derstand any  of  the  others  that  were  explained  to 
him  by  the  ofificials.  This  raised  a  great  outcry  in 
the  western  counties,  and  was  more  dangerous  to 
the  Ministry  than  the  peace  itself.  Together  with 
this  a  storm  of  angry  feeling  was  raised  against  the 
Scots,  who  were  being  given  pensions  and  places 
with  a  lavish  hand  by  Bute.  Pitt  never  counte- 
nanced this  ignoble  prejudice,  and  was  always  ready 
to  praise  the  characteristic  virtues  of  the  Scottish 
people.  But  he  joined  in  the  opposition  to  the  Cider 
Bill,  and  an  amusing  incident  occurred  in  the  House 
during  the  debate.  George  Grenville  argued  that 
the  tax  was  unavoidable.  "  Where,"  he  asked, 
**  can  you  lay  another  tax  ?  Tell  me  where."  And 
he  repeated  the  words  *'  tell  me  where "  several 
times  in  his  querulous,  languid,  fatiguing  tone. 
Pitt,  who  sat  opposite  to  him,  mimicking  his  accent 
aloud,  repeated  these  words  of  an  old  ditty  :  *'  Gen- 
tle shepherd,  tell  me  where  !  "  *     The  name  gentle 

*  Walpole's  Memoirs  George  III,,  i.,  197,  198. 
14 


-/ 


William  Pitt,  [i76i- 


shepherd  was  generally  adopted  as  Grenville's  nick- 
name. But  the  Ministry,  which  had  started  the  ses- 
sion so  strongly,  after  a  few  months  showed  signs  of 
weakness.  Bute  and  Fox  were  on  bad  terms,  and 
Fox  never  recovered  political  influence  after  his 
unscrupulous  management  of  the  House  over  the 
peace.  The  favourite  was  shaken  by  the  growing 
popular  anger,  and  believed  that  if  he  quitted  the 
Government  he  would  withdraw  all  unpopularity 
from  the  King.  On  April  8,  1763,  the  world  was 
amazed  by  the  intelligence  that  Bute  had  resigned. 
George  Grenville  was  made  First  Lord  of  the  Treas- 
ury and  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  Lord 
Sandwich,  one  of  the  ablest  but  least  reputable  of 
the  King's  devoted  followers,  became  First  Lord  of 
the  Admiralty.  Lord  Egremont,  a  leading  Tory, 
and  Lord  Halifax  were  Secretaries  of  State.  Some 
members  of  the  Bedford  party  took  ofifice,  but  the 
Duke  himself  declined  the  post  of  President  of  the 
Council.  Fox  entered  the  House  of  Lords  as  Lord 
Holland.  Fifty-two  thousand  pounds  a  year  were 
granted  in  reversions  to  followers  of  Bute  and  Fox. J 
^^^^^^'^arliament  was  prorogued  on  April  19,  1763,  and 
the  King's  speech  referred  in  glowing  terms  to  the 
peace,  and  stated  that  the  Peace  of  Hubertsburg  be- 
tween Austria  and  Prussia  had  been  made  by  the 
mediation  of  Great  Britain.  This  led  to  the  famous 
No.  45  of  the  North  Briton^  a  paper  conducted  by 
J.  Wilkes,  M.  P.  for  Aylesbury,  which  had  been  fa- 
mous for  its  virulent  attacks  on  Bute  and  the  Scots. 
Wilkes  in  strong  terms  condemned  what  he  described 
as  the    Minister's    speech,    and    characterised    the 


1765]  The  Peace  of  Paris.  2 1 1 

statement,  or  insinuation  that  the  King's  negotiation 
had  secured  the  peace  between  Prussia  and  her  ene- 
mies as  an  infamous  fallacy.  *'  I  am  in  doubt  whether 
the  imposition  is  greater  on  the  sovereign  or  the  na- 
tion." The  attack  on  the  speech  was  very  strongly 
worded,  but  it  was  an  attack  not  on  the  sovereign 
but  on  ministers,  whose  responsibility  for  the  King's 
speech  in  Parliament  had  been  frequently  admitted. 
The  ideas  of  the  Court,  however,  which  desired  to 
make  the  King  more  prominent  than  his  Minister, 
led  that  party  to  treat  the  article  as  a  libel  on 
the  King  himself.  It  was  determined  to  crush 
Wilkes.  A  general  warrant  signed  by  the  Secretary 
of  State  was  issued,^ ordering  the  arrest  of  the  au- 
thors, printers,  and  publishers  of  the  paper,  but 
mentioning  no  names.  Under  this  Wilkes,  with 
forty-eight  other  persons,  was  arrested  and  taken 
before  Lord  Halifax.  His  conduct  illustrated  those 
qualities  ofy  wit,  courage,  readiness,  and  insolence 
which  in  the  following  years  made  him  a  prince 
among  demagogues,  the  darling  of  the  mob,  and  the 
astute  assertor  of  all  legal  privileges.  He  immedi- 
ately |)leaded  his  privilege  against  arrest  as  a  mem- 
ber of  Parliament  and  the  illegality  :t)f  a  general 
warrant,  not  mentioning  the  name  of  the  accused, 
while  in  the  presence  of  Lord  Egremont,  he  asked 
that  he  might  be  confined  in  that  room  in  the  Tower 
which  Egremont's  father,  a  Jacobite,  had  occupied, 
or  at  least  in  one  in  which  no  Scot  had  been  impris- 
oned, if  such  an  one  could  be  found.  Having  sought 
out  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus^  he  was  brought  before 
the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  and  was  released  on  the 


212  William  Pitt, 


[1761- 


ground  that  privilege  of  Parliament  made  illegal  the 
arrest  of  a  member,  except  on  charges  of  treason, 
felony,  or  breach  of  the  peace,  or  refusing  to  give 
surety  of  the  peace.  Wilkes  followed  up  this  great 
triumph  by  bringing  an  action  against  the  Under 
Secretary  of  State,  Wood,  and  Lord  Halifax  for 
illegal  arrest.  Against  the  former  he  obtained 
;^iooo  damages,  while  Halifax,  by  ingenious  plead- 
ing, obtained  a  delay  in  the  action  against  him. 
Chief  Justice  Pratt  pronounced  that  warrants  to 
seize  papers  on  a  charge  of  libel  were  illegal,  and 
expressed  the  same  opinion  in  regard  to  general 
warrants  issued  by  the  Secretary  of  State.  The 
King  retaliated  on  Wilkes  for  these  victories  by  dis- 
missing him  from  his  colonelcy  in  the  Buckingham- 
shire militia.  Temple,  ordered  as  Lord  Lieutenant 
of  the  County  to  inform  Wilkes,  did  so  in  a  letter  of 
compliment,  and  was  himself  struck  off  the  Privy 
Council  and  the  roll  of  Lords  Lieutenant. 

These  events  occupied  the  summer  of  1763. 
Grenville  had  come  into  office  under  the  auspices  of 
Bute,  and  as  he  himself  said,  ""  to  prevent  any  un- 
due and  unwarrantable  force  being  put  upon  the 
Crown."  ^  His  stiff  and  masterful  character  soon 
showed  the  King  that  he  would  prove  no  pliant 
tool  in  the  hands  of  his  sovereign,  and  though 
George  HL  liked  the  business-like  mind  of  his 
Minister,  he  did  not  appreciate  a  dictatorial  style  in 
the  closet.  The  death  of  Lord  Egremont  in  August 
made  a  vacancy  and  Bute  was  ordered  to  sound 
Pitt.     On  August  25th  Bute  saw  Pitt,  and  on  the 


*  Grenville  Papers,  ii.,  106. 


17651  The  Peace  of  Parts.  2 1 3 

following  day  the  King  informed  Grenville  that  he 
intended  to  call  in  Pitt,  but  **to  do  it  as  cheap  as  he 
could."  On  Saturday  Pitt  went  to  the  King,  and 
told  him  it  would  be  his  interest  to  restore  the 
great  Whig  families  and  persons  who  had  been 
driven  from  his  Council  and  service.  His  opinion 
was  that  "the  thing  would  do."  Grenville  waited 
for  two  hours  while  Pitt  was  in  the  closet,  and  on 
going  in  found  the  King  a  good  deal  confused  and 
flustered.  "  From  what  I  collected,"  he  writes, 
"  the  measure  is  fully  taken."  On  Sunday,  Pitt 
went  to  see  Newcastle  at  Claremont,  and  decided  to 
write  to  Devonshire,  Hardwicke,  and  Rockingham.* 
The  same  day  Elliott  and  Jenkinson,  two  leaders 
among  the  King's  friends,  saw  Bute  at  Kew.  '*  They 
terrified  him  so  much  upon  the  consequences  of  the 
step  he  had  persuaded  the  King  to  take,  that  he 
determined  to  depart  from  it,  and  to  advise  his 
Majesty  to  send  for  Mr.  Grenville."  That  evening 
the  King,  who  was  **  in  the  greatest  agitation,"  in- 
formed Grenville  that  Pitt  had  described  the  Minis- 
try as  a  Tory  administration,  and  had  insisted  upon 
a  change  all  round.  He  asked  if  the  terms  were  not 
too  hard.  On  Monday,  Pitt  went  again  to  see  the 
King  and  had  an  audience  of  two  hours.  The 
sovereign  suggested  Lord  Northumberland,  Bute's 
son-in-law,  for  the  Treasury,  but  Pitt  objected  to 
this,  and  also  to  Lord   Halifax. 

"  *  Suppose  your  Majesty  should  think  fit  to  give  Lord 

*  His  letter  to  Rockingham  states  that  without  Rockingham's  sup- 
port "no  system  can  carry  its  due  weight."  MSS.  of  Sarah 
Fitzjanies,  p.  195.     (Hist.  MSS.  Comm.) 


2  14  William  Pitt.  [1761- 

Halifax  the  paymaster's  place  ? '  The  King  replied, 
'  But,  Mr.  Pitt,  I  had  designed  that  for  poor  George 
Grenville  ;  he  is  your  near  relation  and  you  once  loved 
him.*  To  this  the  only  answer  was  a  low  bow.  And 
now  here  comes  the  bait.  *  Why,'  says  his  Majesty, 
'  should  not  Lord  Temple  have  the  Treasury  ?  You 
could  go  on  very  well  then.'  *  Sir,  the  person  you  shall 
think  to  favour  with  the  chief  conduct  of  your  affairs 
cannot  possibly  go  on  without  a  treasury  connected  with 
him  ;  but  that  alone  will  do  nothing.  It  cannot  go  on 
without  the  great  families  who  have  supported  the  Revo- 
lution government,  and  other  great  persons  of  whose 
abilities  and  integrity  the  public  have  had  experience, 
and  who  have  weight  and  credit  in  the  nation.  I  should 
only  deceive  your  Majesty,  if  I  should  leave  you  in 
an  opinion  that  I  could  go  on,  and  your  Majesty  make 
a  solid  administration  on  any  other  foot.'  '  Well,  Mr. 
Pitt,  I  see  this  won't  do.  My  honour  is  concerned,  and 
I  must  support  it.'  "  * 

After  this  the  King  told  Grenville  that  the 
negotiation  was  over,  but  on  that  very  day  Bute 
made  other  offers  to  Pitt,  which  were  rejected. 
Pitt  said  that  he  could  not  tell  what  changed 
the  tone  of  the  King,  but  it  is  clear  that  the 
interview  of  Elliott  and  Jenkinson  with  Bute 
alarmed  the  favourite,  and  the  alarm  spread  to  the 
sovereign.  Lyttleton,  writing  to  Royston,  said : 
*'  My  old  friend  was  ever  a  skilful  courtier ;  but 
since  he  himself  has  attained  a  kind  of  royalty,  he 
seems   more  attentive  to  support  his  own   majesty 

*  Hardwicke  to  Royston,  Chatham  Correspondence^  ii.,  211.     Gren- 
ville Papers^  for  Grenville's  Diary ^  ii.,  195. 


1765]  The  Peace  of  Paris,  215 

than  to  pay  the  necessary  regard  to  that  of  his 
sovereign."  That  was  a  very  inappropriate  criticism 
of  Pitt's  conduct  towards  George  III.,  to  whom  he 
behaved  with  an  excess  of  deference.  It  was  Pitt's 
loyalty  to  the  Whig  famiHes,  and  his  determination 
to  take  office  only  with  their  concurrence,  that  ex- 
cluded him  from  office.  In  judgments  passed,  by 
Burke  among  others,  on  Pitt's  relations  with  the 
traditional  Whigs,  his  conduct  on  this  occasion  is 
overlooked. 

Having  failed  to  detach  Pitt  from  the  Whigs,  the 
King  regarded  Grenville  as  his  one  resource,  and  he 
attempted  to  strengthen  the  administration  by  tak- 
ing in  the  Bedfords.  Bedford  when  first  approached 
advised  the  King  to  send  for  Pitt,  being  ignorant  of 
the  negotiation  just  ended,  but  the  King  informed 
Bedford  that  Pitt  had  stipulated  for  his  exclusion. 
This  was  an  exaggeration  of  what  Pitt  had  said,* 
but  it  enraged  the  Duke,  who  at  once  agreed  to  join 
Grenville.  Shelburne,  who  had  arranged  the  earlier 
negotiation  for  Bute,  resigned  his  office,  and  from 
this  time  was  the  steady  ally  of  Pitt.  He  wrote  to 
Pitt  felicitating  him  on  a  negotiation  being  at  an 
end  ''which  carried  through  the  whole  of  it  such 
shocking  marks  of  insincerity."  Bedford  became 
President  of  the  Council ;  Sandwich,  Secretary  of 
State ;  Hillsborough,  President  of  the  Board  of 
Trade,  and  Egremont,  first  Lord  of  the  Admiralty. 
This  proved  to  be  the  strongest  of  the  earlier 
Ministries  under  George  III.,  and  one  of  the  most 
important. 

♦See  letters  of  Wood  to  Pitt,  Chatham  Corr.^  ii.,  246-252. 


2i6  William  Pitt.  [1761- 

When  Parliament  met  the  first  question  raised  was 
that  of  Wilkes.  Grenville  moved  that  No.  45  was 
a  false,  scandalous,  and  seditious  libel,  tending  to  ex- 
cite the  people  to  traitorous  insurrections.  Pitt 
agreed  in  condemning  the  libel  but  objected  to  the 
words  "  tending  to  excite  the  people  to  traitorous 
insurrections."  The  motion  was  carried  and  then 
Wilkes  raised  the  question  of  his  Parliamentary 
privilege,  which  was  adjourned.  The  following  day 
he  fought  a  duel  with  Martin  and  was  severely 
wounded.  The  matter  of  privilege  came  before  the 
House  on  November  23d,  when  a  motion  was  made 
"  That  the  privilege  of  Parliament  does  not  extend  to 
the  case  of  writing  and  publishing  seditious  libels,  nor 
ought  it  to  be  allowed  to  obstruct  the  ordinary  course 
of  the  laws  in  the  speedy  and  effectual  prosecution 
of  so  heinous  and  dangerous  an  offence.'*  In  prin- 
ciple this  resolution  was  excellent,  as  there  was 
danger  in  the  formidable  array  of  privileges  which 
the  House  had  from  time  to  time  demanded,  but  it 
could  not  be  argued  that  the  House  had  ever  before 
made  so  considerable  a  diminution  from  the  cher- 
ished safeguards  of  members.  It  was  obviously 
proposed,  in  order  to  meet  the  circumstances  of  the 
particular  cause,  to  render  null  and  void  the  defences 
which  Wilkes  had  pleaded,  and  was  a  vindictive 
motion.  Pitt,  though  very  ill,  came  down  to  the 
House  on  crutches,  and  opposed  the  surrender  of 
privilege.  He  argued  that  the  privilege  in  question 
had  never  been  abused,  and  that  it  was  always  in 
the  power  of  Parliament  to  give  up  a  member,  if 
complaint  was  made  of    him.      Parliament  had  no 


1765]  The  Peace  of  Paris,  2 1 7 

right  to  vote  away  its  privileges,  which  were  the  in- 
herent right  of  succeeding  members,  as  well  as  of 
the  present.  He  had  joined  in  condemning  the 
libel,  but  the  rest  belonged  to  the  courts  of  justice. 

"  He  condemned  the  whole  series  of  North  Britons  ; 
called  them  illiberal,  unmanly,  unjust.  He  abhorred  all 
national  reflections.  The  King's  subjects  were  one  peo- 
ple. Whoever  divided  them  was  guilty  of  sedition.  His 
Majesty's  complaint  was  well-founded,  it  was  just,  it  was 
necessary.  The  author  did  not  deserve  to  be  ranked 
among  the  human  species  —  he  was  the  blasphemer  of 
his  God,  and  the  libeller  of  his  King." 

It  would  have  been  well  if  George  III.  had  been 
content  with  this  generous  denunciation,  which 
showed  clearly  enough  that  Pitt  shared  neither  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  mob  for  Wilkes,  nor  its  prejudice 
against  the  Scots.  But  the  political  world  was  eager 
for  the  punishment  of  the  King's  critic,  and  Wilkes 
was  expelled  from  the  House,  while  in  the  Lords, 
Sandwich,*  appearing  for  the  first  time  as  guardian 
of  morals,  brought  to  the  notice  of  that  House  an 
unpublished  parody  by  Wilkes  called  the  Essay  on 
Woman,  and  an  address  was  voted  to  the  King  ask- 
ing that  Wilkes  might  be  prosecuted.  After  Wilkes 
had  escaped  to  Paris,  he  was  ordered  into  custody. 
For  some  years  the   patriot   was  content   in   exile, 

*  Sandwich  was  notoriously  profligate  and  immoral,  and  had  been 
the  associate  of  Wilkes  in  the  orgies  at  Medmenham  Abbey.  The 
Beggars^  Opera  being  performed  at  Convent  Garden  soon  after  this 
event,  the  whole  audience,  when  Marshall  says  "  That  Jemmy 
Twitcher  should  teach  me,  I  own  surprises  me,"  burst  out  into  an 
applause  of  application  ;  and  the  nickname  of  Jemmy  Twitcher 
stuck  by  the  Earl  so  as  almost  to  occasion  the  disuse  of  his  title. 


2i8  William  Pitt. 


[1761- 


living  on  the  bounty  of  Lord  Temple,  and  an  an- 
nuity of  ;^iooo  contributed  by  the  Whigs. 

The  debates  arising  out  of  Sir  W.  Meredith's 
motion  condemning  general  warrants  as  illegal  were 
very  stormy,  and  threatened  to  overturn  the  Minis- 
try. Their  majority  fell  to  ten  on  one  division. 
"  Pitt,"  writes  Horace  Walpole,  ''  broke  out  on  lib- 
erty, and,  indeed,  on  whatever  he  pleased,  uninter- 
rupted. Rigby  sat  feeling  the  vice-treasurership 
slipping  from  under  him.  Nugent  was  not  less  pen- 
sive. Everybody  was  too  much  taken  up  with  his 
own  concerns,  or  too  much  daunted,  to  give  the 
least  disturbance  to  the  Pindaric."  Only  one  of  his 
many  speeches  is  reported.  He  admitted  he  had 
himself  issued  general  warrants,  but  he  knew  they 
were  illegal,  and  that  if  he  issued  them  he  must  risk 
the  consequences.  Both  cases  occurred  during  the 
French  war.  "  The  real  exigency  of  the  case,  of 
the  time,  and  the  apparent  necessity  of  the  King, 
would  always  justify  a  Secretary  of  State  in  every 
astounding  act  of  power."  But  in  the  case  of  Wilkes 
there  was  no  necessity  for  such  action ;  the  parties 
were  known. 

"  What  was  there  in  the  crime  of  libel  so  heinous  and 
terrible,  as  to  require  this  formidable  instrument,  which, 
like  an  inundation  of  water,  bore  down  all  the  barriers 
and  fences  of  happiness  and  security  ?  Parliament  had 
voted  away  its  own  privilege,  and  laid  the  personal  free- 
dom of  every  representative  of  the  nation  at  the  mercy 
of  the  Attorney  General." 

The  issue  of  the  moment  was  the  indulgence  of  a 
personal  resentment  against  a  particular  person.  "  If 


1765]  The  Stamp  Act.  219 

the  House  negatived  the  motion,  they  would  be  the 
disgrace  of  the  present  age  and  the  reproach  of  pos- 
terity ;  who,  after  sacrificing  their  own  privileges,  had 
abandoned  the  liberty  of  the  subject,  upon  a  pre- 
tence that  was  wilfully  founded  in  error,  and  mani- 
festly urged  for  the  purpose  of  delusion." 

Before  the  session  closed  George  Grenville  brought 
forward  the  motion  which  has  given  to  his  name  an 
unhappy  prominence  in  history.  In  March,  1764, 
he  carried  a  motion  declaring  that  *'  for  further  de- 
fraying the  expense  of  protecting  the  colonies  it 
may  be  proper  to  charge  certain  stamp  duties  in  the 
said  colonies."  This  resolution,  of  so  momentous 
import,  attracted  little  attention  in  England  at  the 
time,  but  it  was  the  basis  of  a  carefully  considered 
policy. 

The  detailed  history  of  the  American  Revolution 
has  been  written  many  times ;  there  are  many  points 
of  view  from  which  it  may  be  studied.  Religious, 
•economic,  political  influences  which  had  long  been  in 
operation  combined  to  produce  a  new  State;  the 
foundation  of  that  State  is  the  most  remarkable  ex- 
ample in  history  of  the  practical  political  reason  in 
operation,  and  the  origins  of  modern  democracy  are 
more  clearly  written  in  the  deliberate  and  scientific 
consultations  of  the  American  founders  than  in  the 
storm  and  tumult  of  the  French  Revolution.  The 
basis  of  custom  and  usage  was  broken  up,  and  gov- 
ernment became  an  affair  of  reason  and  speculation. 
But  it  is  as  an  event  in  the  history  of  the  British  Em- 
pire, an  event  which  seemed  to  close  the  chapter  of 
colonial  power  at  the  moment  when  that  power  had 


2  20  William  Pitt.  [176I- 

reached  its  highest  pitch,  that  the  biographer  of  Pitt 
must  regard  the  great  democratic  movement.  The 
energies  of  Pitt's  later  hfe  were  chiefly  devoted  to  the 
struggle  in  England  which  followed  American  events, 
and  to  his  mind  at  least  there  was  a  parallel  between 
the  resistance  of  the  Americans  and  the  opposition 
in  England  to  the  revival  of  an  arbitrary  prerogative. 
While  it  cannot  be  argued  that  Pitt's  political  ideas 
were  broad  enough  completely  to  comprehend  the 
American  case,  or  that  he  was  in  sympathy  with  the 
aspirations  that  were  gradually  enlarged  by  the  con- 
tinued struggle,  it  is  yet  true  that  no  man  in  England 
saw  so  clearly  as  he  the  larger  issues  of  the  movement, 
or  sympathised  so  intensely  with  the  essential  spirit 
of  resistance.  His  patriotism  was  not  insular,  but 
imperial,  and  the  colonial  was  as  truly  a  fellow-sub- 
ject as  the  Englishman  at  home.  He  had  grasped 
the  moral  of  the  Revolution  before  the  disaster  which 
was  necessary  to  impress  it  for  ever  upon  the  British 
nation. 

The  system  on  which  the  American  colonies  were 
governed  was  one  of  political  liberty  and  commercial 
restriction.  There  were  three  classes  of  colony,  the 
royal,  the  proprietary,  and  the  charter  colony  ;  each 
of  these  classes  possessed  a  distinctive  constitution, 
but  all  three  types  approximated  closely  to  the  gen- 
eral model  of  the  British  Parliamentary  monarchy. 
In  the  royal  colonies,  Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  and  New  Hampshire,  the  gover- 
nor and  his  council,  which  was  part  of  the  executive 
power  as  well  as  second  chamber  of  the  legislative, 
were  appointed  by  the  Crown,  and  the  Assembly  was 


1765]  The  Stamp  Act,  221 

elected  by  the  freeholders  of  the  province.  The 
governor  and  the  Crown  both  possessed  a  veto  on  all 
acts,  judges  were  appointed  by  the  governor  and 
held  ofiBce  during  the  royal  pleasure,  while  an  appeal 
lay  to  the  King  in  Council  from  the  local  courts. 
The  only  proprietary  governments  were  Pennsylva- 
nia, Maryland,  and  Delaware ;  in  these  the  Crown 
had  little  influence,  as  the  proprietors  conjointly  with 
the  Crown  appointed  governor  and  council,  and  en- 
acted laws  with  the  advice  of  the  elected  Assemblies. 
In  Maryland  the  Crown  could  not  invalidate  the 
laws  unless  they  were  repugnant  to  those  of  Eng- 
land, and  a  perpetual  export  duty  on  tobacco  pro- 
vided sufficient  revenue  without  grants  from  the 
Assembly.  In  Pennsylvania  the  Assembly  enjoyed 
greater  power,  as  the  governor  and  judges  were  de- 
pendent upon  it  for  their  annual  support.  It  was  in 
Massachusetts  that  the  most  democratic  constitution 
obtained  ;  by  the  charter  granted  in  1691  the  gover- 
nor was  appointed  by  the  Crown,  but  the  Assembly, 
which  met  each  year,  elected  the  twenty-eight  mem- 
bers of  the  council,  though  the  governor  could  veto 
any  name  ;  laws  made  by  the  General  Court,  consist- 
ing of  the  Assembly  and  council,  were  subject  to 
the  governor's  veto  and  might  be  disallowed  by  the 
King  within  three  years  of  their  enactment.  The 
governor  and  council  appointed  judges,  and  the  As- 
sembly voted  all  supplies.  Town  matters  were  gov- 
erned by  town  meetings  of  all  freemen  within  the 
parish,  which  were  an  important  and  most  influen- 
tial institution  ;  ''all  New  England  was  an  aggregate 
of  organised  democracies."    Connecticut  and  Rhode 


222  William  Pitt. 


[1761- 


Island  were  even  more  democratic  in  organisation, 
though  not  in  spirit,  than  Massachusetts,  and  these 
northern  colonies  were  the  mainstay  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. Such  had  been  the  general  political  system 
for  the  greater  part  of  American  history  ;  its  working 
displayed  the  dangerous  weakness  of  the  executive 
power,  and  the  ability  of  the  Assemblies  not  to  gov- 
ern, but  to  paralyse  government.  The  governor 
was  responsible  to  the  Crown  and  dependent  on  the 
Assembly ;  because  he  was  not  the  man  of  their  own 
choice,  and  not  responsible  to  them,  his  every  act 
was  scrutinised  with  a  greater  jealousy  by  the  elected 
representatives  who  controlled  the  purse.  The 
claim  to  vote  supplies  led  to  the  larger  claim  to  ap- 
propriate supplies,  exactly  as  it  had  done  in  English 
Parliamentary  history  ;  if  the  colonial  Assembly,  like 
the  English  Parliament,  could  have  delegated  its  su- 
preme control  to  a  ministerial  executive,  a  firmly  ad- 
justed constitution  might  have  been  secured.  But 
that  meant  that  the  executive  would  be  not  the  ser- 
vant of  the  Crown,  but  the  choice  of  the  colony:  it 
meant  that  the  Assembly,  in  the  words  of  Governor 
Pownall,  would  assume  "  the  actual  executive  part 
of  the  Government,  than  which  nothing  is  more 
clearly  and  unquestionably  settled  in  the  Crown."  ^' 
A  representative  body  that  controls  the  public  reve- 
nue is  certain  to  absorb  sovereign  power;  but  when 
the  charters  of  the  colonists  granted  to  the  Ameri- 
can this  familiar  English  safeguard,  such  a  conse- 
quence was  not  understood  or  intended,  and  as  a 
result   there   were   constant    quarrels    between   the 


"^Administration  of  the  Colonies. 


17651  The  Stamp  Act.  223 

executive,  which  represented  the  EngHsh  idea  of  co- 
lonial subordination,  and  the  Assembly,  which 
represented  the  actual  fact  of  colonial  self-govern- 
ment. This  was  particularly  the  case  in  Massachu- 
setts, where  many  disputes  with  a  succession  of 
governors  and  many  victories  won  by  the  withhold- 
ing of  money  had  pointed  and  emphasised  the  es- 
sential importance  of  representative  control  over  the 
public  revenue.  When  that  position  was  threatened 
every  man  in  New  England  saw  the  value  of  the  is- 
sue as  clearly  as  Hampden  had  seen  it  in  that  his- 
toric struggle  out  of  which  New  England  itself  had 
sprung. 

In  commercial  affairs  and  questions  of  general 
policy  the  colonies  were  subordinate  to  the  Crown 
and  to  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain,  which  was 
recognised  as  the  superintending  body.  The  Eng- 
lish common  law  and  statutes  which  mentioned  the 
plantations  were  everywhere  recognised  as  binding, 
and  any  colonial  law  repugnant  to  such  statutes  was 
null  and  void.*  Matters  affecting  the  colonies  gen- 
erally, such  as  the  law  of  naturalisation,  the  currency, 
the  postal  system,  were  expressly  regulated  by  Par- 
liament, and  appeals  were  made  to  the  Crown  for 
protection  against  religious  or  class  oppression.  It 
was,  however,  in  the  laws  of  trade  that  Parliamentary 
control  made  itself  felt.  The  commercial  system 
was  that  which  had  commended  itself  to  the  states- 
men of  every  European  country  that  possessed 
plantations,  a  system  founded  on  monopoly,  prohib- 
itive tariffs,  bounties,  and  all  those  devices  of  pro- 

*  7  and  8  Will.  III.,  c.  22. 


2  24  William  Pitt.  [176I- 

tectionism  which  the  eiiHghtened  inteUigence  of  the 
nineteenth  century  regards  with  disdain.  In  its 
main  object  the  system,  which  aimed  at  power,  was 
completely  successful ;  it  was  adopted  in  order  to 
encourage  the  shipping  trade  of  England,  and  with- 
out doubt  that  object  was  achieved  largely  as  a  re- 
sult of  its  provisions.  By  his  Navigation  Ordinance 
of  165  I  Cromwell  decieed  that  no  goods  should  be 
exported  from  or  imported  into  England  except  in 
English  or  colonial  built  ships,  which  must  belong 
to  English  owners  and  be  manned  by  a  crew  three 
quarters  English.  By  the  Act  of  1660  this  was  re- 
asserted, and  it  was  further  ordained  that  certain 
enumerated  articles  should  not  be  exported  from 
any  colony  to  any  country  except  Great  Britain  or 
another  British  colony;  and  in  1664  and  1672  it  was 
further  enacted  that  European  goods  must  be 
landed  in  Great  Britain  before  being  shipped  to  the 
colonies,  and  that  goods  exported  from  one  colony 
to  another  should  be  liable  to  the  same  duty  as  if 
exported  to  England.  So  far  as  the  compulsory 
use  of  English  ships  was  concerned  the  colonists 
were  on  a  level  with  Englishmen,  and  found  no  great 
reason  to  complain  ;  they  were  amply  compensated 
by  the  resulting  strength  of  the  English  navy,  which 
protected  their  commerce  and  had  delivered  them 
from  French  rivalry.  The  other  side  of  the  com- 
mercial policy  in  some  respects  hazarded  their  in- 
terests ;  so  far  as  the  enumerated  articles  were 
concerned  they  were  rigidly  confined  to  the  British 
market,  but  some  of  their  most  important  produc- 
tions, such  as  grain,  lumber,  salted  provisions,  fish, 


1765]  The  Stamp  Act,  225 

sugar,  and  rum,  were  not  enumerated,  and  these 
might  be  exported  directly  to  other  colonies.  "  If 
the  whole  surplus  produce  of  America  had  been  put 
into  the  enumeration,  and  thereby  forced  into  the 
.market  of  Great  Britain,  it  would  have  interfered 
too  much  with  the  produce  of  the  industry  of  our 
own  people,"  writes  Adam  Smith.  A  great  market 
was  secured  for  certain  American  goods,  such  as 
sugar,  tobacco,  unwrought  iron,  by  their  exemption 
from  part  of  the  duty  levied  on  the  same  goods  from 
foreign  countries,  and  a  system  of  drawbacks  remit- 
ting part  of  the  export  duties  on  foreign  goods 
shipped  to  England  in  transit  for  America  made 
some  articles  actually  cheaper  in  the  colonies  than 
in  England.  On  the  other  hand,  while  bounties 
were  given  on  English  necessaries,  such  as  naval 
stores  sent  to  the  mother  country,  any  manufacture 
or  trade  that  would  compete  with  an  English  indus- 
try was  suppressed  by  law.  Thus,  to  take  a  remark- 
able instance  quoted  by  Bancroft,  the  Bible  was  not 
allowed  to  be  printed  by  any  colonial  press.  The 
most  important  of  the  commercial  restrictions  in. its 
immediate  effects  was  the  prohibitive  duty  on  the 
importation  into  New  England  of  molasses  from  the 
French  West  Indian  islands.  New  England  found 
a  market  for  its  timber  in  these  islands,  and  the 
French  needed  a  market  for  their  molasses,  which 
were  excluded  from  France,  while  New  England's 
great  export  was  rum.  The  duty  was  systematically 
evaded,  with  the  tacit  consent  of  the  customs  offi- 
cers. A  great  illicit  trade  sprang  up  in  this  connec- 
tion, and    even   during   the   war,  greatly  to  Pitt  s 

S5 


2  26  William  Pitt. 


[1761- 


indignation,"^  the  trading  zeal  of  the  colonists  led 
them  to  export  commodities  to  the  French.  This 
contraband  trade  attracted  the  attention  of  Gren- 
ville;  the  attempt  to  suppress  it  displayed  to  the 
colonists  the  disadvantages  of  the  mercantile 
system. 

The  great  critic  of  this  system,  Adam  Smith,  in 
summing  up  his  considerations  upon  it,  remarks  that 
Great  Britain  treated  the  colonists  with  greater  lib- 
erality than  any  foreign  Power,  but  astutely  adds 
that  this  did  not  arise  altogether  from  disinterested- 
ness. ''  To  found  a  great  empire  for  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  raising  up  a  people  of  customers,  may  at  first 
sight  appear  a  project  fit  for  a  nation  of  shop- 
keepers." The  traders  of  England  wished  that 
"  the  cultivators  of  America  might  be  confined  to 
their  shop  :  first  for  buying  all  the  goods  which  they 
wanted  for  Europe ;  secondly,  for  selling  all  such 
parts  of  their  own  produce  as  such  traders  might 
find  it  convenient  to  buy — for  they  did  not  find  it 
convenient  to  buy  every  part  of  it.  Some  parts  of  it 
imported  into  England  might  have  interfered  with 
some  of  the  trades  which  they  themselves  carried  on 
at  home.  Those  particular  parts  of  it,  therefore, 
they  were  willing  that  the  colonists  should  sell 
where  they  could,  the  further  off  the  better;  and 
upon  that  account  proposed  that  their  market 
should  be  confined  to  the  countries  south  of  Cape 
Finisterre.  A  clause  in  the  famous  Act  of  Naviga- 
tion estabhshed  this  truly  shopkeeper  proposal  into 

*See  his  "  Letter  to  Governors  of  America,"  Thackeray's  Life  of 
Chatham ^  ii.,  475. 


1765]  The  Stamp  Act.  227 

a  law.  The  maintenance  of  this  monopoly  has 
hitherto  been  the  principal,  or  more  properly  per- 
haps the  sole,  end  and  purpose  of  the  dominion 
which  Great  Britain  assumes  over  the  colonies.  .  .  . 
The  monopoly  is  the  sole  badge  of  their  depen- 
dency, and  it  is  the  sole  fruit  which  has  hitherto 
been  gathered  from  that  dependency."  These 
words  exhibit  the  spirit  of  that  colonial  system 
which  was  tried  and  found  wanting  in  the  early 
years  of  George  III. ;  they  contain  also  a  warning 
that  is  eternally  applicable  to  those  who  are  mem- 
bers of  a  great  commercial  empire. 

The  policy  with  which  Grenville  was  identified, 
but  which  was  undoubtedly  not  originated  by  him, 
was  no  opportunist  scheme  hastily  adopted,  but  the 
logical  outcome  of  the  ideas  on  which  the  old  colo- 
nial system  was  based.  He  had  inherited  the  vast 
debt  increased  to  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
millions  by  the  late  war ;  the  bent  of  his  mind  was 
towards  economy  and  urgent  considerations  com- 
pelled him  to  seek  fresh  sources  of  income ;  he  had 
inherited  also  the  duty  of  securing  the  defence  of 
Canada  against  all  possible  attacks,  and  of  guarding 
the  civilisation  of  America  from  the  peril  of  Indian 
warfare.  Examining  the  revenue  from  American 
customs  he  found  that  a  receipt  varying  between 
one  and  two  thousand  pounds  cost  from  seven  to 
eight  thousand  to  collect,  while  his  consideration  of 
the  problem  of  American  defence  led  him  to  con- 
clude that  an  army  of  twenty  thousand  men  must 
be  maintained  in  the  colonies.  This  was  as  large  a 
force  as  had  been  maintained  in  Great  Britain  on  the 


2  28  William  Pitt, 


[1761- 


peace  establishment,  and  its  cost  amounted  to  a  con- 
siderable sum.  The  policy  he  adopted  was  rigidly 
to  enforce  the  trade  laws,  to  establish  an  army  of 
twenty  thousand  in  America,  and  to  raise  an  Amer- 
ican revenue  by  means  of  stamps  afifixed  to  all  legal 
documents,  which  should  be  spent  entirely  in  sup- 
port of  the  army  in  America.  So  far  as  the  first 
two  articles  were  concerned  Grenville  was  only  exe- 
cuting the  ideas  of  his  generation,  though  the 
methods  he  adopted  bore  the  impress  of  his  narrow 
and  somewhat  pedantic  mind,  and  of  that  strain  of 
tyranny  which  was  part  of  his  character.  In  enforc- 
ing the  trade  laws  he  was  in  reality  aiming  a  severe 
blow  at  American  prosperity,  especially  in  New  Eng- 
land, and  a  wise  statesman  would  have  been  specially 
careful  to  adopt  means  as  little  irritating  as  possible  ; 
Grenville,  however,  when  once  satisfied  that  his  pur- 
pose was  a  righteous  one  paid  little  attention  to 
method.  He  enlarged  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Ad- 
miralty Courts,  which  sat  without  a  jury,  though 
trial  by  jury  was  universal  in  the  colonies ;  he  gave 
to  revenue  officers  a  general  power  of  search  by  writs 
of  assistance,  which  were  analogous  to  the  general 
warrants  of  England,  and  he  transformed  the  naval 
officers  stationed  on  the  American  coast  into  revenue 
officials,  administering  to  them  the  customs  house 
oath,  and  encouraging  their  assiduity  by  the  pros- 
pect of  large  rewards  for  the  discovery  of  smuggling. 
It  is  clear  that  measures  such  as  these  bore  all  the 
appearance  of  tyranny. 

The  first  note  of  resistance  was  heard  in  the  speech 
of  Otis,  in  February,  1761,  against  the  practice  of 


1765]  The  Stamp  Act,  229 

issuing  writs  of  assistance  to  the  customs  officers. 
The  writs  were  clearly  legal,  but  it  is  worth  noting 
that  Otis,  and  that  other  lawyer  patriot  Henry,  who 
had  such  a  great  influence  over  popular  opinion, 
never  hesitated  to  lay  greater  stress  on  the  broad 
moral  aspect  of  their  cases  than  on  any  technical 
legal  ground.  Otis,  for  example,  in  his  speech  against 
the  writs  of  assistance  stood  upon  the  maxim,  "  No 
Act  of  Parliament  can  establish  such  a  writ ;  even 
though  made  in  the  very  language  of  the  petition,  it 
would  be  a  nullity.  .  .  .  An  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment against  the  constitution  is  void."  He  appealed 
to  universal  principles,  founded  in  truth,  and  said 
that  the  writs,  though  based  on  statutes,  were  con- 
trary to  "  reason."  Those  words  are  said  to  have 
produced  a  lasting  impression,  but  the  argument  is 
one  which  no  law  court  could  accept,  seeing  that  it 
is  addressed  not  to  the  interpretation  but  to  the 
moral  character  of  the  statutes  concerned.*  It  is  a 
salient  characteristic  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
policy  of  Grenville  was  approached  by  the  Ameri- 
cans that  they  regarded  the  technical  aspect  as  sub- 
ordinate, and  went  directly  to  the  root  principles  of 
government  involved. 

While  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  strict  enforce- 
ment of  the  trade  laws  was  more  damaging  to  the 
monetary  interests  of  the  Americans,  it  was  the 
novel  plan  of  Grenville  embodied  in  the  Stamp  Act 

*  Adams  said  Otis  was  Isaiah  and  Ezekiel  in  one,  "  Then  and 
there  was  the  first  scene  of  the  first  act  of  opposition  to  the  arbitrary 
claims  of  Great  Britain."  Tyler,  Literary  History  of  the  American 
Revolution^  i.,  36. 


230  William  Pitt,  [1751- 

that  first  moved  the  colonists  to  united  resistance. 
In  regard  to  this  measure  the  Minister  showed  con- 
siderable anxiety  to  consult  the  wishes  of  the  col- 
onists, and  he  gave  them  a  year  in  which  to  consider 
its  details,  or  to  suggest  some  other  method  of  rais- 
ing the  money.  He  met  the  agents  of  the  colonies, 
and  expressed  his  desire  if  possible  to  act  in  accord- 
ance with  their  wishes,  but  he  never  wavered  as  to 
the  necessity  of  a  contribution  from  America,  or  as 
to  the  right  of  the  Imperial  Parliament  to  levy  a  tax. 
When  Franklin  suggested  that  the  old  method  of  a 
requisition  upon  the  Assemblies  through  the  govern- 
ors had  answered  well  in  the  past,  Grenville  asked 
him  whether  the  colonies  could  agree  on  the  respec- 
tive proportions  they  should  contribute.  Franklin 
was  too  familiar  with  the  constant  disputes  between 
the  colonies  on  this  very  matter  to  answer  that  they 
could,  but  it  is  none  the  less  a  remarkable  fact  that 
Grenville  should  not  even  have  tested  this  method 
of  raising  the  revenue,  which  he  intended  to  devote 
entirely  to  American  objects.  In  introducing  the  reso- 
lution (February  6,  1765)  he  argued  that  the  colonies 
had  a  right  to  protection,  that  protection  meant  an 
army,  and  that  it  was  reasonable  for  the  colonies  to 
raise  one-third  of  the  amount  required  for  this  army. 
He  estimated  that  the  Stamp  Act  would  produce 
;^  100,000.  The  debt  of  Great  Britain  was  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  millions,  that  of  the  colonies  eight 
hundred  thousand,  while  the  cost  of  their  govern- 
ment was  only  seventy-five  thousand  a  year.  The 
remonstrances  of  the  Americans,  he  asserted,  failed  in 
the  great  point  of  the  colonies  not  being  represented 


1765]  The  Stamp  Act.  231 

in  Parliament,  which  was  the  great  council  of  the 
Empire,  and  as  capable  of  imposing  internal  taxes  as 
navigation  laws.  Their  charters  could  not  override 
Parliament ;  it  was  not  within  the  prerogative  to 
emancipate  English  subjects  from  the  dominion 
of  Parliament. 

The  Commons  were  impressed  by  these  argu- 
ments, knowing  as  they  did  the  heavy  burden  of 
taxation  in  Great  Britain.  The  only  opposition 
came  from  Conway  and  from  Barr^,  the  latter  of 
whom,  in  his  "  Sons  of  Liberty  "  speech,  realised 
very  acutely  the  spirit  in  which  the  Americans  re- 
sisted the  act.  There  was  force  in  the  contention 
that  the  colonists  had  profited  greatly  by  the  war, 
and  ought  to  share  in  the  expenses  it  entailed,  al- 
though that  contention  was  exaggerated  when  it  was 
urged  that  the  war  had  been  undertaken  entirely  on 
behalf  of  the  colonies.  The  war  had  been  far  more 
a  British  than  an  American  concern,  and  British 
statesmen  would  never  have  undertaken  such  an  en- 
terprise simply  on  account  of  colonial  interests;  in 
previous  policy,  at  the  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  for 
example,  colonial  interests  were  strictly  subordina- 
ted to  those  of  the  mother  country.  Pitt's  speech 
on  the  peace  clearly  showed  that  the  war  had  opened 
up  the  prospect  of  great  mercantile  advantages. 
Moreover,  the  colonies  had  themselves  rendered 
great  services.  They  had  put  twenty  thousand  men 
into  the  field,  and  were  by  no  means  recouped  for 
their  outlay  in  money  by  the  sums  granted  them 
from  the  British  exchequer.  Pennsylvania,  accord- 
ing to  Franklin,  spent  half  a  million  and  received 


232  William  Pitt.  [176I- 

back  only  sixty  thousand  pounds.*  He  asserted 
also  that  the  colonists  could  not  pay  the  stamp  duty 
for  want  of  gold  and  silver,  and  the  Pennsylvanians 
were  obliged  to  tax  themselves  heavily.  Yet  he  said 
they  would  willingly  give  money  for  the  objects  of 
the  act  if  they  were  asked  to  make  a  free  grant. 
But  Grenville  was  wedded  to  the  principle  of  Parlia- 
mentary taxation,  which  was  more  to  him  even  than 
the  increase  of  revenue,  as  is  shown  by  his  curious 
offer  of  bounties  as  offsets  against  the  new  tax. 
"  If  one  bounty  will  not  do,  I  will  add  two,  if  two 
will  not  do,  I  will  add  three."  \  This  offer  breaks 
down  the  logic  of  his  plan,  and  deprives  him  of  that 
reputation  for  economy  which  was  his  chief  pride. 
Bounties  given  on  so  lavish  a  scale  would  soon 
diminish  the  hundred  thousand  pounds,  which  was 
the  anticipated  market  value  of  the  Stamp  Act ; 
and  while  bounties  could  only  satisfy  those  con- 
cerned in  particular  trades,  the  new  duty  affected 
the  whole  population,  so  that  there  would  have  been 
constant  demands  for  more  bounties.  Dr.  Johnson, 
deprecating  too  low  an  estimate  of  Grenville's  na- 
ture, said  that  if  he  could  have  obtained  payment  of 
the  Manilla  ransom  from  Spain  he  would  have  been 
able  to  count  it.  Possibly  the  Minister  realised  that 
the  experiment  of  bribing  the  colonists  to  pay  a 
small  tax  would  not  prove  a  lucrative  one  for  the 
national  finances,  but  he  had  pledged  his  word,  his 
obstinate  nature  was  committed  to  that  view  of  the 


*  Examination  before   the   House  of  Commons.      Works  (Jared 
Sparks)  iv.,  i6i,  198. 

\  Cavendish  Debates ^\.^  404. 


1765J  The  Stamp  Act,  233 

question,  as  one  of  *'  obedience  to  the  laws,  and  re- 
spect for  the  legislative  authority  of  the  kingdom," 
which  was  expressed  in  the  King's  speech  of  1765. 
Whether  or  not  the  Treasury  was  to  be  enriched,  he 
had  pitted  the  ParHament  of  Great  Britain  against 
those  Assemblies  which  were  her  children. 

For  twelve  months  after  the  struggle  over  Wilkes, 
Pitt  was  almost  retired  from  political  life.  He  re- 
ceived two  legacies  during  the  year,  one  of  ;^iooo 
from  Mr.  Allen  of  Bath,  and  another  one  from  Sir 
William  Pynsent,  who  bequeathed  an  estate  in  Som- 
ersetshire of  nearly  ;^3000  a  year,  which  offered  him 
enough  land  for  his  favourite  pleasure  of  landscape 
gardening.  The  death  of  the  Duke  of  Devonshire 
and  the  great  age  of  Newcastle  made  Lord  Rock- 
ingham leader  of  the  Whigs.  Pitt,  in  October,  1764, 
wrote  a  kind  of  manifesto  to  Newcastle  in  which  he 
declared  that  "  he  would  not  quit  the  free  condition 
of  a  man  standing  single,  and  daring  to  appeal  to  his 
country  at  large,  upon  the  soundness  of  his  princi- 
ples and  the  rectitude  of  his  conduct."  Notwith- 
standing this  declaration  the  Whigs  still  looked  to 
Pitt  as  one  who  would  consolidate  a  Ministry  of 
their  own  connection.  The  Duke  of  Grafton  writes 
in  his  journal,  "The  Opposition  had  so  little  expec- 
tation of  being  called  to  take  a  part  in  Administra- 
tion, unless  by  the  recommendation  of  Mr.  Pitt,  that 
even  when  the  coldness  between  the  King  and  his 
servants  was  apparent  to  all  mankind,  to  act  under 
Mr.  Pitt  became  the  general  voice,  and  was  our  prin- 
cipal wish."  "^     The  spring  of   1765,  when   this  was 

♦Anson's  Grafton,  p.  32. 


234  William  Pitt,  \X7t\- 

written  by  Grafton,  again  brought  political  dissen- 
sions, the  occasion  being  the  first  illness  of  George 
III.  This  necessitated  a  Regency  Bill ;  Grenville 
and  Bedford  were  by  this  time  bitterly  hostile  to 
anything  that  savoured  of  Bute's  influence,  and  they 
extracted  from  the  King  an  agreement  that  the 
name  of  his  mother,  the  Princess  Dowager,  should 
be  excluded  from  the  Council  of  Regency.  By  an 
amendment  carried  against  Grenville  by  the  Tories 
and  King's  friends,  it  was  decided  to  insert  the 
name.  The  incident  caused  the  greatest  pain  to  the 
King  and  abruptly  ended  all  relations  of  confidence 
with  his  Ministers.  He  turned  to  the  Duke  of  Cum- 
berland, whom  he  had  frequently  slighted,  and  be- 
sought him  to  find  a  Ministry.  The  Duke  began 
negotiations  in  May,  1765. 

Pitt  was  interviewed  by  Lord  Albemarle  and  by 
Cumberland  himself,  and  subject  to  certain  stipula- 
tions as  to  policy,  the  most  important  of  which  were 
the  establishment  of  a  counter-system  to  the  House 
of  Bourbon,  the  restoration  of  officers  who  had  been 
dismissed  for  their  votes  in  Parliament,  and  prefer- 
ment in  the  services  on  merit,  he  was  personally  will- 
ing to  serve.  Temple,  however,  made  objections. 
Grenville  and  Bedford,  finding  that  the  negotiation 
was  unsuccessful,  determined  to  read  the  King  a  les- 
son and  punish  the  adherents  of  Bute.  Their  be- 
haviour to  the  King  was  hectoring,  dictatorial,  and 
discourteous.  Another  attempt  was  made  by  the 
King  to  engage  Pitt  and  he  declared  he  was  ready 
to  go  to  St.  Janes's  "  if  he  might  carry  the  Constitu- 
tion with  him."    In  his  interview  with  the  King  Pitt 


Earl  temple  . 


17651  The  Stamp  Act.  235 

condemned  the  Stamp  Act.*  But  again  Temple 
stepped  in,  and  declined  the  Treasury.  Pitt  reluct- 
antly gave  up  the  idea  of  returning  to  office  and 
quoted  to  Temple 

"  Exstinxti  me  teque,  soror,  populumque  patresque 
Sidonios,  urbemque  tuam." 

It  is  difficult  to  divine  Temple's  reasons  for  this 
perverse  conduct,  which  deprived  England  of  a  Min- 
istry that  might  have  avoided  the  great  disaster 
impending ;  probably  his  recent  reconciliation  with 
George  Grenville  was  the  origin  of  a  foolish  ambi- 
tion he  cherished  of  making  with  his  brother  and 
Pitt  a  triumvirate  that  should  govern  the  Empire. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Pitt  was  anxious  to  take 
office.  Cumberland  wrote  to  Albemarle  :  "  I  found 
the  King  already  entrenching  himself  behind  Pitt's 
promises  of  mercy  in  so  many  particulars.  By  what 
I  can  pick  up,  Pitt  is  completely  mortified,  and  I  am 
heartily  sorry  for  it,  as  he  had  entered  more  sincere- 
ly into  the  King's  service,  nay,  and  went  further 
almost  than  the  King's  views."  f  Probably  Temple 
desired  to  inflict  condign  punishment  on  the  entire 
party  of  Bute.  He  described  the  plan  of  the  pro- 
posed administration  as  Butal  Ducal. 

The  King  at  length  found  deliverance  from  Gren- 
ville by  taking  in  the  Whigs  ;  Lord  Rockingham 
took  the  Treasury  ;  Conway  was  leader  of  the  Com- 
mons, and    Secretary    of   State   with    the   Duke  of 

♦  Grenville  Papers^  iii.,  203. 

\  Rockingham  Memoirs,  i.,  213,  241.  See  also  Cumberland's  re- 
port on  the  negotiations,  ibid.^  i.,  185-203,  and  Grenville  Papers,  iii., 
61. 


536  William  Pitt.  [1761-1765] 

Grafton  as  colleague,  Dowdeswell  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  and  the  old  Duke  of  Newcastle  Privy 
Seal.  Chesterfield  described  the  new  Ministry  as  an 
arch  of  which  Pitt  was  the  key-stone.  Lyttleton 
wrote  to  his  brother: 

"  Mr.  Pitt  is  convinced  that  if  Lord  Temple  had  ac- 
cepted, the  Ministry  formed  by  and  under  them  would 
have  had  nothing  to  fear  from  Lord  Bute  ;  that  the  King 
relished  the  measures,  both  foreign  and  domestic,  which 
he  had  prepared  ;  and  that  he  can  never  hereafter  come 
in  so  agreeably  to  himself  or  so  usefully  to  the  publick, 
the  time  being  critical  with  respect  to  foreign  affairs. 
Nor  do  I  think  he  will  ever  co-operate  with  Lord  Tem- 
ple in  any  measure  of  opposition  taken  by  his  Lordship, 
in  conjunction  with  his  brother  and  the  Duke  of  Bed- 
ford, or  accede  to  them  as  a  Ministry,  though  he  is 
reconciled  to  George  Grenville  as  a  relation. 
The  desire  of  Mr.  Pitt  in  the  publick  is  inexpressibly 
strong,  and  nothing  will  satisfy  them  without  him.  I 
believe  he  is  also  much  desired  in  the  Court,"  * 

Temple,  on  the  other  hand,  plainly  declared  his 
own  disapproval  of  the  new  Government,  and  in- 
timated that  Pitt  shared  his  feeling.  *'  Mr.  Pitt 
neither  had,  nor  would  have,  any  the  least  share 
in  the  formation  of  it,  as  it  now  stands ;  he  is 
retired  into  Somersetshire,  and  has  not,  I  dare 
say,  any  the  smallest  communication  with  them  "f 
(September  5,  1765).  Charles  Townshend  said  it  was 
a  lute-string  administration,  fit  only  for  summer  wear. 


*  Phillimore's  Lytileton,  July  25,  1765. 
f  Grenville  Papers,  iii.,  85. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

REPEAL  OF  THE   STAMP  ACT. 


1766. 

THE  Rockingham  party  will  be  always  memor- 
able because  its  leader  was  the  patron  of  Ed- 
mund Burke,  the  most  profoundly  influential 
of  English  political  thinkers,  who,  in  1765,  at  the 
age  of  thirty-six,  was  returned  to  Parliament  as 
member  for  Wendover.  Dr.  Johnson  declared  that 
he  had  only  known  two  men  who  had  risen  very  con- 
siderably above  the  common  level,  Lord  Chatham 
and  Edmund  Burke.  Although  Burke  was  a  poor 
man  and  unconnected,  from  the  first  his  influence 
over  the  passive  and  unoriginal  intellect  of  Rock- 
ingham was  commanding  and  decisive.  How  far 
Burke's  ideas  on  the  subject  of  party  were  coloured 
by  the  special  circumstances  of  the  Rockingham 
connection,  or  how  far  the  policy  of  the  party  was 
the  fruit  of  Burke's  ideas,  it  is  not  easy  to  say.  But 
Burke  was  their  great  protagonist  and  originator ; 
his  eloquence  and  fame  have  shed  glory  upon  their 
commonplace  personalities.  The  antagonism  be- 
tween Pitt  and  this  section  of  the  Whigs,  which  was 

237 


238  William  Pitt.  wi^^ 

never  wholly  subdued,  was  the  result  mainly  of  Pitt's 
idiosyncrasies,  but  it  was  stimulated  and  embittered 
from  the  other  side  by  Burke's  dislike  for  Pitt,  by 
his  distrust  of  Pitt's  popular  tendencies,  his  preju- 
dice against  a  man  who  would  not  bow  the  knee  to 
the  prevailing  deity  of  the  Whigs,  but  acted  with 
confidence  in  himself  and  an  arrogant  disregard  of 
great  connections.  Burke's  belief  in  party  govern- 
ment has  been  substantiated  by  the  history  of  poli- 
tics since  the  great  democratic  revolution  which 
Burke  feared  so  greatly,  but  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury it  was  only  dimly  realised.  Rockingham  was 
a  typical  Whig,  and  his  small  party  represented  all 
that  remained  of  the  great  majority  which  New- 
castle had  consolidated  and  Pitt  had  borrowed. 
They  had  passed  unscathed  through  the  hard  ordeal 
of  Fox's  systematic  corruption,  and  deserved  the 
highest  credit  for  their  resistance  to  that  Minister. 
They  still  preserved  the  old  Whig  faith  in  govern- 
ment by  the  House  of  Commons,  though  they  never 
had  a  majority  of  their  own.  The  great  principles 
of  uniform  policy  in  the  Council,  and  uniform  action 
under  one  leader,  which  Burke  ascribed  to  them  in 
later  years,  may  have  reposed  in  the  bosom  of  Rock- 
ingham, but  they  were  from  the  first  disregarded  by 
his  colleagues.  The  new  Premier  was  a  man  of  good 
sense  and  genuine  character,  but  he  was  lacking  in 
experience  and  in  training;  destitute  of  all  greater 
qualifications  for  statesmanship,  with  no  superior 
knowledge  and  no  remarkable  strength  of  will,  he 
failed  to  impress  Parliament,  or  his  colleagues,  or  the 
nation,  with  any  belief  in  his  value,  any  desire  for 


LORD  ROCKINGHAM. 
FROM  THE  PAINTING  BY  B.  WILSON. 


1766]  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  239 

his  return.  He  owed  his  position  to  his  great  ter- 
ritorial possessions,  and  up  to  the  time  when  he  be- 
came Premier  had  held  no  responsible  office  of 
state,  though  as  Lord  Lieutenant  he  had  been  dis- 
tinguished by  dismissal,  at  the  same  time  as  Devon- 
shire and  Newcastle.  It  was  only  after  long 
resistance  that  he  yielded  to  the  pressure  of  his 
friends  and  took  the  Treasury.  It  is  difficult  to 
share  in  the  enthusiasm  of  Biirke  for  this  blameless 
but  uninspiring  chief,  and  the  regard  of  his  contem- 
poraries never  passed  beyond  the  esteem  which  is 
felt  for  all  those  who  do  their  duty  in  that  station  to 
which  it  has  pleased  God  to  call  them. 

Rockingham's  chief  colleagues  were  Conway  and 
Grafton.  Conway  had  served  with  distinction,  and 
very  conspicuous  bravery,  under  Prince  Ferdinand. 
Horace  Walpole  cherished  for  him  a  warm  and  con- 
stant affection,  and  has  portrayed  his  character  in 
the  most  attractive  light.  His  speeches  were  ready 
and  graceful,  delivered  with  much  charm  of  manner, 
and  spiced  with  considerable  wit ;  his  honesty  was 
undoubted,  his  incorruptibility  proverbial,  his  inten- 
tions excellent.  But  of  initiative  in  political  action 
he  had  none,  and  too  often,  even  in  the  pages  of  his 
admirer,  he  presents  the  confusing  spectacle  of  a 
politician  not  knowing  his  own  mind.  An  admirable 
lieutenant,  he  needed  a  leader.  The  other  Secretary 
of  State  was  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  who  at  this  time 
was  barely  thirty  years  of  age.  Like  the  Duke  of 
Richmond  and  Fox,  he  was  descended  from  Charles 
II.  Plis  estate,  inherited  at  an  early  age,  combined 
with  unusual   ability,   made    him    prominent   long 


240  William  Pitt.  n766 

before  his  character  was  matured,  but  he  was  never 
anxious  for  office,  and  preferred  fox-hunting  to 
politics.  He  was  an  accomplished  speaker  and  in 
easier  times  might  have  made  a  successful  Minister. 
He  warmly  admired  the  character  of  Pitt,  who  had 
noticed  him  when  a  boy  at  Eton,  and  Pitt  appreci- 
ated the  admiration  and  friendship  of  the  young 
Duke.  From  the  moment  of  accepting  office 
Grafton  made  no  secret  of  his  preference  for  Pitt. 
He  himself  writes  : 

"  Despairing  of  receiving  Mr.  Pitt's  assistance  at  our 
head,  a  new  plan  for  establishing  a  Ministry  was  pro- 
posed— several,  with  myself,  understanding  that  it  came 
forward  with  a  full  declaration  of  our  desire  to  receive 
Mr.  Pitt  at  our  head,  whenever  he  should  see  the  situa- 
tion of  affairs  to  be  such  as  to  allow  him  to  take  that 
part.  My  concern  afterwards  was  great,  when  I  found, 
before  the  conclusion  of  our  first  session,  that  this  idea 
was  already  vanished  from  the  minds  of  some  of  my 
colleagues.  I  always  understood  this  to  be  the  ground 
on  which  I  engaged,  and  it  will  be  seen  that  I  adhered 
to  my  own  resolution  to  the  last."  * 

Prominent  among  the  supporters  of  Rockingham, 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  were  Sir  George  Saville, 
a  man  of  great  influence  with  his  leader,  of  strong 
convictions  and  great  constitutional  knowledge,  and 
Dowdeswell,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer. 
Charles  Townshend  still  retained  the  Paymastership, 
but  did  not  profess  any  attachment  to  his  col- 
leagues, while  Lord  Harrington,  the  Secretary  of 
War,  and  Northington,  the  Lord  Chancellor,  were 

♦Anson's  Grafton^  p.  54. 


1766]  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  241 

avowedly   servants   of   the   King   and  in  no   sense 
followers  of  the  Prime  Minister. 

The  fate  of  the  Ministry  depended  on  the  favour 
of  the  King  or  the  support  of  Pitt.  The  sovereign 
had  accepted  Rockingham  as  a  last  resort  against 
George  Grenville  ;  he  preferred  the  Whigs  with  Pitt 
to  the  Whigs  without  him,  because  he  believed 
Pitt's  peculiar  ideas  on  the  subject  of  party  would 
make  a  Ministry  under  him  amenable  to  royal  in- 
fluence :  but  now  he  had  been  compelled  to  accept 
the  party  he  had  intended  to  exclude  from  office 
during  his  reign.  Moreover,  Rockingham  and  Con- 
way were  personally  distasteful,  both  having  suffered 
official  deprivation  for  their  independence ;  Chief 
Justice  Pratt,  the  fearless  judge  who  had  asserted 
the  illegality  of  general  warrants,  had  been,  by 
compulsion  of  the  Ministers,  raised  to  the  peerage 
as  Lord  Camden ;  and  on  the  most  important 
question  of  the  day,  the  Stamp  Act,  Rockingham 
was  for  repeal,  while  the  King  believed  in  the  act. 
With  such  grounds  of  royal  disfavour,  and  with 
the  controlling  majority  in  Parliament  under  the 
sovereign's  direction,  Rockingham  could  not  antici- 
pate a  long  tenure  of  office.  But  the  unique  fame, 
the  wide  popular  favour  of  Pitt  might  have  out- 
balanced the  weight  of  the  King's  displeasure,  and 
from  the  beginning  the  support  of  Pitt  was  solicited. 
It  is  clear  that  Pitt  always  distrusted  the  Ministry, 
and  it  is  somewhat  curious  that  the  cause  of  his  dis- 
trust was  his  old  quarrel  with  the  Duke  of  New- 
castle. At  the  great  dinner  of  the  leading  men  at 
which  the  distribution  of  offices  was  arranged,  there 

z6 


242  William  Pitt, 


[1766 


was  much  difficulty  in  persuading  Rockingham  to 
take  the  Treasury,  and  Grafton  states  that  New- 
castle gave  up  his  claims  to  leadership  reluctantly. 
Pitt  imagined  that  the  former  chieftain  was  to  be 
the  guiding  spirit,  and  there  are  some  evidences 
of  activity  on  Newcastle's  part  which  may  have 
strengthened  this  suspicion.  On  several  occasions 
before  Parliament  met  Pitt's  opinion  on  the  Minis- 
try was  asked.  To  Grafton  on  the  24th  of  August  he 
wrote  :  '*  I  have  constantly  averred  that  this  Minis- 
try was  not  formed  by  my  advice,  but  by  the  coun- 
sel of  others ;  that,  from  experience  of  different 
ways  of  thinking  and  of  acting,  Claremont  *  could 
not  be  to  me  an  object  of  confidence  or  expectation 
of  a  solid  system  for  the  public  good  according  to 
my  notions  of  it."  f  To  Thomas  Walpole,  to  whom 
he  had  just  sold  Hayes,  he  said  :  "All  I  can  say  is 
this,  that  I  move  in  the  sphere  only  of  measures. 
Quarrels  at  Court,  or  family  reconciliations,  shall 
never  vary  my  fixed  judgment  of  things.  Those 
who,  with  me,  have  stood  by  the  cause  of  liberty, 
and  the  national  honour,  upon  true  Revolution 
principles,  will  never  find  me  against  them,  till  they 
fall  and  do  not  act  up  to  those  principles."  :j:  To 
George  Cooke  he  remarked  that  he  had  finally  re- 
solved never  to  be  in  confidence  or  concert  again 
with  Newcastle.  In  yet  another  letter  Pitt  wails  in 
his  favourite  minor  key  : 

"  The  world   now  is  fallen  into  the  Duke  of   New- 
castle's hands  ;  the  country  is  undone  ;  and   I  am   of 

*  Newcastle.      f  Chatham  Corr,^  ii.,  321-322.       %  Ibid.^  ii.,  329. 


1766]  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  243 

opinion,  that  no  solid  system  for  giving  it  but  a  chance 
for  any  tolerable  degree  of  safety  can  be  possible  under 
his  Grace's  auspices,  and  where  his  influence  colours  and 
warps  the  whole."  * 

All  this  is  somewhat  melancholy  reading.  Dread 
of  Newcastle  obscured  Pitt's  mind,  and  it  was  a 
singularly  inadequate  motive  to  govern  such  a  man 
at  such  a  crisis.  Can  Pitt  have  forgotten  how  he 
had  ruled  Newcastle  himself?  Even  if  Newcastle 
had  been  chief  Minister,  Pitt's  would  have  been  in- 
comparably the  strongest  influence  at  Council  and 
in  Parliament,  and  with  Rockingham  as  nominal 
chief,  a  man  who  would  have  resigned  office  without 
hesitation  rather  than  countenance  for  a  moment  the 
usurped  authority  of  Bute,  there  was  little  fear  that 
the  Ministry  would  have  been  dragged  at  the  heels 
of  the  Court.  The  administration  was  open  to  the 
objection,  as  Pitt  conceived  it  to  be,  of  being  founded 
on  too  narrow  a  bottom,  and  on  one  connection,  and 
the  ideal  of  a  Ministry  of  all  the  talents  and  repre- 
senting all  sections  was  a  noble  if  impracticable  one  ; 
but  the  accession  of  Pitt  would  have  widened  its 
foundations,  he  would  have  received  the  ready  sup- 
port of  the  ablest  men  in  its  ranks,  and  could  have 
exercised  practical  control  over  its  policy.  But  Pitt 
seems  to  have  imbibed  the  malignant  suspicions  of 
Temple,  and  his  will  was  fixed  not  to  join  the 
administration. 

It  is  a  relief  to  turn  from  the  personal  antipathies 
which  separated  Rockingham  and  Pitt  to  the  great 


^Chatham  Correspondence^  ii.,  345. 


244  William  Pitt.  [i766 

question  of  public  policy  on  which  they  were  united. 
The  Ministry  is  remembered  as  that  which  repealed 
the  Stamp  Act  of  Grenville  and  averted  for  a  time 
the  danger  of  schism  in  Greater  Britain.  It  is 
America  that  gives  unity  to  Pitt's  career  ;  it  was 
his  war  policy  which  drove  the  French  from  Canada, 
which  increased  the  debt  of  Great  Britain,  and  made 
new  sources  of  revenue  necessary  ;  he  had  inspired 
in  the  colonies  a  lofty  spirit,  he  had  emancipated 
them  from  that  fear  of  the  French  which  made  them 
lean  on  British  protection,  he  had  breathed  into 
them  the  consciousness  of  organic  unity.  Having 
been  chief  agent  in  this  work  of  consolidation,  it  was 
his  fate  to  live  through  the  years  of  dismemberment 
and  disintegration,  to  watch  the  tragedy  of  estrange- 
ment proceed  towards  its  relentless  end.  The  series 
of  events  which  led  to  the  establishment  of  the 
United  States  is  not  indeed  part  of  the  biography  of 
Pitt,  as  is  the  war  which  he  conducted,  but  none  the 
less  it  must  be  fully  understood  if  a  proper  estimate 
of  Pitt  is  to  be  made.  We  have  seen  him  in  the 
height  of  his  power,  acting  with  unimpeded  freedom, 
a  maker  of  history  ;  except  for  one  brief  space,  we 
shall  for  the  future  see  him  hampered  and  almost 
powerless,  the  man  of  action  transformed  into  the 
critic  and  prophet.  If  in  the  first  period  he  made 
an  Empire,  in  the  second  he  struggled  to  avert  an 
Empire's  dissolution.  It  is  this  double  aspect  of  his 
career  as  an  imperial  statesman  which  has  given  to 
his  life  a  two-fold  value  in  the  study  of  imperial 
politics. 

Events  in  America,  after  the  news  that  Grenville's 


17661  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  245 

policy  had  been  adopted  by  Parliament  arrived, 
were  an  anticipation  of  what  might  occur  if  more 
serious  resistance  became  necessary.  The  presses 
were  flooded  with  pamphlets  arguing  the  question, 
and  these,  with  the  fragments  of  speeches,  exhibit 
the  spiritual  origins  of  that  passionate  love  of  sober 
freedom  which  was  the  noblest  element  in  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution,  as  indeed  it  is  the  highest  quality  of 
English  political  history.  Every  Spaniard  who  sailed 
for  America,  said  Adam  Smith,  hoped  to  find  an  El 
Dorado,  but  the  emigration  to  New  England  had 
been  an  "  exodus,"  not  a  search  for  gold  but  a 
change  of  country  for  the  sake  of  religious  freedom. 
"  Religion  is  the  great  state-building  principle  ;  these 
colonists  could  found  a  new  State  because  they  were 
already  a  Church."  ^  That  influence  of  a  long  train- 
ing in  the  religious  freedom  of  the  Independent 
Church  in  New  England,  of  the  Society  of  Friends 
in  Pennsylvania,  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  parts 
of  Virginia  is  writ  large  in  the  pamphlets  of  the 
time.  It  had  encouraged  the  speculative  intelli- 
gence, which  was  now  turned  keenly  upon  the  very 
foundations  of  authority.  The  arguments  used  were 
largely  those  of  the  great  Whig  philosopher,  Locke, 
and  a  theory  which  based  society  upon  a  compact 
between  governor  and  governed  supplied  arguments 
in  plenty  against  unlimited  submission.  It  is  inter- 
esting to  observe  how  quotations  from  the  Bible  and 
from  Locke  mingle  with  passages  from  the  classic 
writers,  with  heroic  examples  from  what  Pitt  called 
the  apostolic  age  of  patriotism,  the  days  of  Scipio, 

*  Expansion  of  England ,  p.  154. 


24-6  William  Pitt,  [1766 

or  from  the  England  of  the  Stuart  period.  Patrick 
Henry  warned  George  III.  that  Tarquin  and  Caesar 
had  each  his  Brutus,  that  Charles  had  his  Cromwell. 
Jonathan  Mayhew,  the  great  Puritan  preacher,  told 
his  congregation  that  he  had  drawn  his  ideas  on  civil 
liberty  '*  from  Plato,  Demosthenes,  Cicero,  and  other 
renowned  persons  among  the  ancients  ;  from  Sidney, 
Milton,  Locke,  and  Hoadly,  among  the  moderns  ; 
that  he  had  learnt  from  the  Holy  Scriptures  that 
wise,  virtuous,  and  brave  men  were  always  friends  to 
liberty."  "^  A  principal  difference  between  the  French 
and  American  revolutions  is  that  the  former  was  an 
uprising  against  wrong  and  oppression,  whereas  in 
the  latter  men  who  worshipped  freedom  as  a  spirit- 
ual possession  scented  tyranny  from  afar,  and  were 
urged  into  resistance  not  by  oppression  but  by  the 
fear  of  oppression. 

Sentiment  and  enthusiasm  played  a  great  part, 
but  a  victorious  common  sense  reigned  over  both. 
It  was  at  once  perceived  that  union  among  the  col- 
onies was  the  true  source  of  strength  ;  "  There  ought 
to  be  no  New  Englandman,  no  New  Yorker,  known 
on  the  continent,  but  all  of  us  Americans."  Frank- 
lin in  his  Canada  pamphlet  had  told  the  English  that 
union  among  the  colonies  was  not  merely  improb- 
able, but  impossible,  unless,  he  added,  by  the  most 
grievous  tyranny  and  oppression. f  He  himself 
had  experienced  the  difficulties  attending  the  most 
elementary  union  in  1754,  but  the  Stamp  Act  was  a 
great  unifying  influence,  and  a  Congress,  in  which 
nine  colonies  were  represented,  assembled  at  New 

*  Tyler,  op.  cit.,  i.,  132.  f  Works,  iv.,  42. 


1766]  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  247 

York  in  October,  1765.  "  Those  who  compose  it," 
wrote  Gage  to  Secretary  Conway,  *'  are  of  various 
characters  and  opinions,  but  in  general  the  spirit  of 
democracy  is  strong  among  them,  supporting  the 
independence  of  the  provinces  as  not  subject  to  the 
legislative  power  of  Great  Britain.  The  question  is 
not  of  the  expediency  of  the  Stamp  Act,  but  that  it 
is  unconstitutional  and  contrary  to  their  rights.'* 
Very  cautious  resolutions  were  passed  with  practical 
unanimity  by  the  Congress,  which  drew  up  fourteen 
declaratory  resolutions  of  right,  and  petitions  to  the 
King  and  each  House  of  Parliament.  These  dwell 
on  the  right  of  trial  by  jury  in  opposition  to  the 
Admiralty  court,  complain  of  the  late  restrictions 
of  trade,  acknowledge  all  due  subordination  to  the 
Parliament,  but  assert  that  the  people  of  the  colo- 
nies, who  are  entitled  to  all  the  rights  of  natural- 
born  subjects,  are  not,  and  from  local  circumstances 
never  can  be,  represented  by  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. ''  It  is  inseparably  essential  to  the  freedom 
of  a  people,  and  the  undoubted  right  of  English- 
men, that  no  taxes  be  imposed  on  them  but  with 
their  own  consent  given  personally  or  by  their  repre- 
sentatives." Such  was  the  constitutional  ground 
taken.  Other  measures  of  a  practical  kind  were 
adopted,  by  common  consent,  with  no  need  of  legal 
sanction.  The  merchants  agreed  to  send  no  more 
orders  to  Great  Britain  for  goods,  and  suspended 
payment  of  their  debts  to  merchants  in  the  mother 
country,  until  the  Stamp  Act  should  be  repealed. 
The  stamps  were  boycotted :  all  legal  business  was 
at    a    standstill    until    the    royal    governors    were 


248  William  Pitt. 


[1766 


compelled  to  issue  letters  authorising  for  a  time  non- 
compliance with  the  act.  The  Stamp  Act  was 
hawked  about  the  streets  as  Britain's  Folly  and 
America's  Ruin.  The  riots  and  disorders  which  are 
an  inevitable  accompaniment  of  all  great  popular 
ferments  broke  out  at  Boston,  where  the  Admiralty 
court  was  burned  and  Hutchinson's  house  was 
broken  into  by  the  mob.  It  is  an  evil  side  of  this 
great  agitation  for  liberty  that  such  conduct  was 
allowed  to  go  unpunished,  though  it  was  totally  in- 
consistent with  the  constitutional  appeal  to  the  King 
and  Parliament  which  the  Congress  had  initiated. 

The  colonists  had  stated  their  case  in  calm  and 
dignified  language,  which  insisted  on  their  rights  as 
free  citizens  of  the  Empire,  but  at  the  same  time 
acknowledged  the  obligations  of  loyalty  and  their 
affection  for  Great  Britain,  and  they  had  launched 
a  series  of  retaliatory  commercial  measures.  The 
latter  quickly  produced  an  effect  on  English  public 
opinion.  The  traders  of  London,  Bristol,  and  Liv- 
erpool sent  petitions  to  Parliament  stating  that  the 
colonists  owed  several  millions  for  goods  supplied  ; 
that  they  had  hitherto  paid  their  debts  punctually, 
but  now  declared  that  they  could  not  do  so.  Mary- 
land and  Virginia  owed  half  a  million  to  Glasgow 
alone,  and  in  Manchester,  Nottingham,  and  Leeds, 
thousands  of  men  were  thrown  out  of  employment  by 
the  cessation  of  American  orders."'^  A  great  impres- 
sion had  thus  been  made  on  those  mercantile  classes 
upon  whose  special  knowledge  politicians  had  always 
relied   for   guidance   in    their   colonial   policy.      In 


*  Lecky,  History  of  England,  iii.,  333. 


1766]  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  249 

strictly  political  circles  in  England,  few  men  realised 
the  importance  of  the  Stamp  Act,  and  during  the 
negotiations  which  led  to  the  Rockingham  Ministry, 
the  only  reference  made  to  the  subject  was  Pitt's 
repudiation  of  the  scheme  in  his  audience  with  the 
King.*  The  new  administration,  in  which  Burke 
saw  the  beginning  of  uniform  party  conviction,  was 
divided  on  the  question. 

The  Duke  of  Cumberland  would  have  favoured 
enforcement  of  the  act,  and  after  his  death,  North- 
ington,  Yorke,  Barrington,  were  all  in  favour  of  the 
principle.  Rockingham  himself  wished  for  repeal 
in  order  to  avoid  the  confusion  that  must  follow 
coercion ;  Conway  and  Grafton  agreed.  The  King 
believed  in  the  right  to  tax,  and  preferred  modifica- 
tion to  repeal,  but,  he  said,  repeal  is  better  than 
enforcement  by  the  sword.  When  Parliament  met 
in  December,  affairs  in  America  were  referred  to  as 
"matters  of  importance,"  but  no  policy  was  fore- 
shadowed in  the  King's  speech.  Angry  debates 
occurred  in  both  Houses,  in  which  the  Bedford 
party,  Mansfield,  Grenville,  and  Charles  Townshend 

*  Mr.  Lecky  points  out  the  very  remarkable  fact  that  in  his  discus- 
sion with  Cumberland,  Pitt  traversed  the  whole  situation,  but  said 
nothing  of  America.  "  There  is  not  the  smallest  evidence  that 
either  Pitt  or  Cumberland,  or  any  of  the  other  statesmen  who  were 
concerned  in  the  negotiation,  were  conscious  that  any  serious  quest- 
ion was  impending  in  America."  This  is  true  as  to  the  May  negotia- 
tions, but  needs  supplementing  by  Pitt's  remarks  to  the  King  in 
June.  Grenville  says  that  Pitt's  blame  of  the  Stamp  Act  was  among 
the  "  fundamentals  "  he  laid  down  to  the  King.  (June  26,  1765. 
Grenville  Papers^  iii.,  203).  Shelburne  and  Pitt  "strongly  com- 
mended Barre's  conduct  "  in  opposing  the  act.  Life  of  Shelburne^ 
i.,  322,  323. 


250  William  Pitt.  [1766 

were  conspicuous  by  their  demand  that  British 
authority  should  be  maintained.  The  Ministers  did 
not  state  any  poHcy,  and  it  is  noteworthy  that  those 
who  spoke  for  the  colonies  were  Shelburne,  who  had 
visited  Pitt  on  his  way  to  town,  and  Cooke  and 
Beckford,  who  were  on  intimate  terms  with  Pitt. 
During  the  Christmas  recess  a  meeting  of  Ministers 
was  held,  but  they  could  agree  on  no  consistent 
plan  of  operations,  and  decided  upon  a  King's  speech 
that  should  recommend  the  subject  in  general  terms 
to  the  wisdom  of  Parliament."^  It  is  clear  that  when 
Pitt  came  to  London  in  January  the  question  of  re- 
peal was  an  open  one. 

What  was  the  exact  relation  of  Pitt  to  Ministers  ? 
That  was  the  problem  which  exercised  politicians. 
The  debates  of  December  had  exhibited  the  strength 
of  opposition  and  the  strong  prejudice  against  the 
colonists  existing  in  both  Houses.  Rockingham 
offered  Shelburne  a  high  position  after  the  latter's 
strong  speech  against  the  Stamp  Act,  but  the  only 
reply  he  received  was  that  Shelburne  believed  that 
without  Mr.  Pitt  no  durable  and  respectable  system 
could  be  formed.  Writing  to  his  chief,  Shelburne 
says  that  he  is  astonished  at  the  infatuation  of  Min- 
isters in  being  ''  persuaded,  as  they  appear  to  be,  of 
the  confidence  of  the  Court."  ''Only  Pitt  can  put 
an  end  to  the  condition  of  anarchy  existing."  '*  Lord 
Rockingham  expressed  himself  certain  of  Mr.  Pitt's 
good  wishes,  and  that  they  were  ready  to  be  dis- 
posed of  as  he  pleased."  f     Pitt  in  reply  again  re- 

*  Adolphus,  Hist,  of  George  II L,  i.,  198  (1848). 
•j-  Chatha?n  Correspondence^  i.,  353. 


1766]  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  251 

feri-ed  to  Newcastle's  influence.  Within  the 
Ministry,  Grafton  particularly  desired  an  immediate 
resort  to  Pitt,  and  when  the  latter  arrived  in  town 
negotiations  were  opened.  Thomas  Townshend, 
a  leader  among  the  country  gentlemen,  had  visited 
Pitt  at  Bath  to  ask  his  advice  and  to  say  that  the 
Ministers  desired  much  to  have  him  at  their  head. 
Pitt's  answer  was  somewhat  cold,  but  Grafton  recom- 
mended that  Pitt  should  be  invited  to  see  the  King 
and  give  his  advice  on  the  American  matter.  "  I 
presumed  to  recommend  this  step  to  his  Majesty, 
who  had  no  objection  to  it,  until  he  had  seen  Lord 
Rockingham.'"^  On  January  6th,  the  King,  pre- 
sumably after  this  interview  with  the  chief  Minister, 
sent  Rockingham  his  formal  decision  "  that  so  loose 
a  conversation  as  that  of  Mr.  Pitt  and  Mr.  Town- 
shend is  not  sufficient  to  risk  either  my  dignity  or 
the  continuance  of  my  administration,  by  a  fresh 
treaty  with  that  gentleman.  ...  I  shall  there- 
fore, undoubtedly,  to-morrow  decline  authorising  the 
Duke  of  Grafton  to  say  anything  to  Mr.  Pitt."t  So 
matters  stood  when  Parliament  met  again  on  Janu- 
ary 14,  1766. 

Pitt  had  not  been  in  the  House  for  twelve  months, 
but  during  those  twelve  months  had  been  constantly 
solicited  to  take  office,  both  by  the  sovereign  and 
by  the  Whigs.  At  this  moment  he  was  arbiter  of 
the  ministerial  policy  and  the  ministerial  fate,  and  a 
crowded  House  waited  anxiously  for  the  words  that 


♦Anson's  Grafton,  p.  63.     Sir  W.  Anson's  notes  elucidate  this 
transaction. 

\  Rockingham  Memoirs,  i.,  266. 


^52  William  Pitt,  [1756 

should  dispel  doubt  and  rumour,  and  prove  whether 
Pitt  had  joined  in  Lord  Temple's  political  reconcil- 
iation with  George  Grenville  or  intended  to  assist 
repeal.  The  royal  speech  informed  Parliament  that 
matters  of  importance  had  happened  in  America, 
and  orders  had  been  issued  for  the  support  of  lawful 
authority.  Whatever  remained  to  be  done,  he  com- 
mitted to  their  wisdom.  The  debate  which  followed 
made  this  one  of  the  greatest  occasions  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  House  of  Commons ;  the  question  de- 
bated was  momentous  for  the  nation,  for  the  empire, 
and  for  mankind  ;  the  argument  resolved  itself  into 
a  duel  between  the  two  chief  members  of  the  assem- 
bly, men  who  had  been  friends  in  youth,  but  now 

"  They  stood  aloof,  the  scars  remaining, 
Like  clififs  which  had  been  rent  asunder." 

The  pedantic  and  pedestrian  mind  of  the  one  con- 
trasted with  the  rapid  imagination  of  the  other; 
Grenville's  technical  accuracy  and  careful  logic  dis- 
sected the  lofty  declamations  of  Pitt ;  it  was  a  com- 
bat between  the  mechanical  forces  of  talent  and  the 
irresistible  energy  of  genius. 

Pitt  spoke  early  in  the  debate,  and  began  with  a 
brief  dissertation  upon  parties.*  '*  I  stand  up  in 
this  place,  single  and  unconnected.  As  to  the  late 
Ministry,"  turning  to  Grenville,  who  sat  within  one 
of  him,  ''every  capital  measure  they  have  taken  is 
entirely  wrong.     To  the  present  gentlemen,  to  those 


*  The  fullest  report  is  in  Bancroft.  A  French  precis,  which  Ban- 
croft consulted  contains  several  additions  to  the  accepted  English 
version,  which  was  reported  by  Sir  Robert  Head. 


1766]  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  253 

at  least  whom  I  have  in  my  eye  "  (looking  at  Con- 
way), "  I  have  no  objection  ;  I  have  not  been  made  a 
sacrifice  by  any  of  them.  Their  characters  are  fair, 
and  I  am  always  glad  when  men  of  fair  characters 
engage  in  his  Majesty's  service.  Some  of  them  have 
done  me  the  honour  to  ask  my  opinion  before  they 
would  engage.  They  will  do  me  the  justice  to  own, 
I  advised  them  to  engage ;  but,  notwithstanding, — 
I  love  to  be  explicit, —  I  cannot  give  them  my  con- 
fidence :  pardon  me,  gentlemen,  confidence  is  a  plant 
of  slow  growth  in  an  aged  bosom  ;  youth  is  the  sea- 
son of  credulity.  By  comparing  events  with  each 
other,  reasoning  from  effects  to  causes,  methinks  I 
plainly  discover  the  traces,  of  an  overruling  influ- 
ence." This  was  taken  for  a  reference  to  Newcastle, 
though  what  traces  of  an  overruling  influence  Pitt 
found,  it  is  difficult  to  say.  The  great  orator  then 
delivered  his  soul,  and  the  Stamp  Act  party  found 
that  he  at  least  would  meet  them  not  with  the 
hesitating  and  ambiguous  utterances  of  the  divided 
Ministry,  but  with  a  clear  and  certain  voice. 

^'  When  the  resolution  was  taken  in  the  House  to  tax 
America,  I  was  ill  in  bed.  If  I  could  have  endured  to 
have  been  carried  in  my  bed,  so  great  was  the  agitation 
of  my  mind  for  the  consequences,  I  would  have  soUcited 
some  kind  hand  to  have  laid  me  down  on  this  floor,  to 
have  borne  my  testimony  against  it.  It  is  now  an  Act 
that  has  passed.  I  would  speak  with  decency  of  every 
Act  of  this  House,  but  must  beg  indulgence  to  speak  of 
it  with  freedom.  The  subject  of  debate  is  of  greater 
importance  than  ever  engaged  the  attention  of  this 
House ;    that   subject    only    excepted   when    nearly    a 


254  William  Pitt,  [175 6 

century  ago,  it  was  a  question  whether  you  yourselves 
were  to  be  bond  or  free.  The  manner  in  which  this 
affair  will  be  terminated  will  decide  the  judgment  of 
posterity  of  the  glory  of  this  kingdom,  and  the  wisdom 
of  its  government  during  the  present  reign.  ...  I 
must  now,  though  somewhat  unreasonably  —  leaving  the 
expediency  of  the  Stamp  Act  to  another  time  —  speak  to 
a  point  of  infinite  moment,  I  mean  to  the  right.  Some 
seem  to  have  considered  it  as  a  point  of  honour,  and 
leave  all  measures  of  right  and  wrong,  to  follow  a  delu- 
sion that  may  lead  us  to  destruction.  .  .  .  America 
being  neither  really  nor  virtually  represented  in  West- 
minster, cannot  be  held  legally,  or  constitutionally,  or 
reasonably  subject  to  obedience  to  any  money  bill  of 
this  kingdom.  .  .  .  The  Americans  are  the  sons,  not 
the  bastards  of  England.  As  subjects  they  are  entitled 
to  the  common  right  of  representation,  and  cannot  be 
bound  to  pay  taxes  without  their  consent.  Taxation  is 
no  part  of  the  governing  power.  The  taxes  are  a  volun- 
tary gift  and  grant  of  the  Commons  alone.  In  an 
American  tax,  what  do  we  do  ?  We,  your  Majesty's 
Commons  of  Great  Britain,  give  and  grant  to  your  Maj- 
esty, what  ?  our  own  property  ?  No.  We  give  and  grant 
to  your  Majesty  the  property  of  your  Majesty's  Com- 
mons in  America.  It  is  an  absurdity  in  terms.  .  .  . 
There  is  an  idea  in  some  that  the  Colonies  are  virtually 
represented  in  this  House.  ...  I  would  fain  know 
by  whom  an  American  is  represented  here  ?  Is  he  re- 
presented by  any  Knight  of  the  Shire?  Would  to  God 
that  respectable  representation  was  augmented  to  a 
greater  number  !  Or  will  you  tell  him  that  he  is  repre- 
sented by  any  representative  of  a  borough  ?  a  borough 
which,  perhaps,  no  man  ever  saw.  That  is  what  is  called 
the  rotten  part  of  the  Constitution.     It  cannot  endure 


1766]  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  255 

the  century.  If  it  does  not  drop  it  must  be  amputated. 
The  idea  of  a  virtual  representation  of  America  in  this 
House  is  the  most  contemptible  that  ever  entered  into 
the  head  of  a  man.  It  does  not  deserve  a  serious  refuta- 
tion. The  Commons  of  America,  represented  in  their 
several  assemblies,  have  ever  been  in  possession  of  the 
exercise  of  this  their  constitutional  right,  of  giving  and 
granting  their  own  money.  They  would  have  been 
slaves  if  they  had  not  enjoyed  it.  .  .  .  If  this  House 
suffers  the  Stamp  Act  to  continue  in  force,  France  will 
gain  more  by  your  colonies  than  she  ever  could  have 
done  if  her  arms  in  the  last  war  had  been  victorious.  I 
never  shall  own  the  justice  of  taxing  America  internally 
until  she  enjoys  the  right  of  representation.  In  every 
other  point  of  legislation,  the  authority  of  Parliament  is 
like  the  North  star,  fixed  for  the  reciprocal  benefit  of  the 
parent  country  and  her  colonies.  The  British  Parlia- 
ment, as  the  supreme  governing  and  legislative  power, 
has  always  bound  them  by  her  laws,  by  her  regulations 
of  their  trade  and  commerce,  and  even  in  a  more  absol- 
ute interdiction  of  both.     Here  I  would  draw  the  line." 

Conway  spoke  a  few  words  of  deference  to  Pitt, 
and  said  that  his  speech  expressed  the  sentiments 
of  most,  if  not  all,  the  King's  servants.  Then  Gren- 
ville  rose  to  defend  his  favourite  measure,  and  to 
obliterate,  if  possible,  the  effect  produced  by  Pitt's 
argument.  He  began  with  the  disturbances  in  Amer- 
ica, which  he  said  "  border  on  open  rebellion  ;  and  if 
the  doctrine  I  have  heard  this  day  be  confirmed, 
nothing  can  tend  more  directly  to  produce  a  revolu- 
tion." External  and  internal  taxes  are  the  same  in 
effect ;   this  kingdom  is  sovereign,  and  taxation  is 


256  William  Pitt.  t1766 

part  of  the  sovereign  power.  It  is  one  branch  of 
legislation.  Parliament  taxes  the  India  Company, 
and  many  great  towns,  such  as  Manchester,  which 
are  not  represented.  So,  too,  it  taxed  the  palatinate 
of  Chester,  and  the  bishopric  of  Wales  before  they 
sent  representatives.  The  Crown  cannot  exempt  by 
charter  any  family  or  colony  from  subordination  to 
the  Parliament.  The  Stamp  Act  is  but  the  pretext 
of  which  they  make  use  to  arrive  at  independence. 
It  was  thoroughly  considered.  Protection  and  obedi- 
ence are  reciprocal.  Great  Britain  protects  America ; 
America  is  bound  to  yield  obedience. 

"  If  not,  tell  me  when  the  Americans  were  emanci- 
pated? Ungrateful  people  of  America  !  Bounties  have 
been  extended  to  them.  When 'I  had  the  honour  to  serve 
the  Crown,  while  you  yourselves  were  loaded  with  an 
enormous  debt  of  one  hundred  and  forty  millions,  and 
paid  a  revenue  of  ten  millions,  you  have  given  bounties 
on  their  lumber,  their  iron,  their  hemp  and  many  other 
things.  You  have  relaxed,  in  their  favour,  the  Act  of 
Navigation,  that  palladium  of  British  commerce.  I 
offered  to  do  everything  in  my  power  to  advance  the 
trade  of  America.  I  discouraged  no  trade  but  what  was 
prohibited  by  Act  of  Parliament." 

Such  is  a  summary  of  Grenville's  argument,  which 
is  logical  enough  from  the  standpoint  he  always 
chose  —  that  of  the  complete  sovereignty  of  Parlia- 
ment. When  he  ended,  Pitt  rose  again,  with  his 
customary  disregard  for  those  rules  of  order  which 
the  ordinary  Parliamentarian  so  deeply  reverences. 
Grenville's  speech  had  touched  him  to  the  quick, 


1766]  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  257 

and  this  reply  was  delivered  with  ardour  and  pas- 
sion, in  an  impetuous  torrent  of  oratory ;  no  other 
speech  of  Pitt  produced  so  great  an  effect,  and  few 
speeches  that  any  man  has  delivered  since  the  be- 
ginning of  civilisation  have  produced  wider  results 
than  this  unpremeditated  reply.  Its  influence  on 
American  opinion  was  decisive. 

"  I  have  been  charged  with  giving  birth  to  sedition  in 
America.  ...  I  rejoice  that  America  has  resisted.  If 
its  millions  of  inhabitants  had  submitted,  taxes  would 
soon  have  been  laid  on  Ireland  ;  and  if  ever  this  nation 
should  have  a  tyrant  for  its  king,  six  millions  of  freemen, 
so  dead  to  all  the  feelings  of  liberty,  as  voluntarily  to 
submit  to  be  slaves,  would  be  fit  instruments  to  make 
slaves  of  the  rest.  I  come  not  here  armed  at  all  points 
with  law  cases  and  Acts  of  Parliament,  with  the  Statute- 
book  doubled  down  in  dog's  ears,  to  defend  the  cause  of 
liberty.  ...  I  draw  my  ideas  of  freedom  from  the 
vital  powers  of  the  British  Constitution,  not  from  the 
crude  and  fallacious  notions  too  much  relied  on  as  if  we 
were  but  in  the  morning  of  liberty.  .  .  .  The  gentleman 
tells  us  of  many  who  are  taxed,  and  are  not  represented 
—  the  India  Company,  merchants,  stockholders,  manu- 
facturers. Many  of  these  are  represented  in  other  capac- 
ities. They  are  all  inhabitants,  and  as  such  are  virtually 
represented.  They  have  connection  with  those  who 
elect,  and  they  have  influence  over  them.  Not  one  of 
the  Ministers  who  have  taken  the  lead  of  government 
since  the  accession  of  King  William,  ever  recommended 
a  tax  like  this.  None  of  them  ever  dreamed  of  robbing 
the  colonies  of  their  constitutional  rights.  That  was  re- 
served to  mark  the  era  of  the  late  Administration.     Not 

that  there  were  wanting  some,  when  I  had  the  honour  to 
17 


258  William  Pitt. 


[1766 


serve  his  Majesty,  to  propose  to  me  that  I  should  burn 
my  fingers  with  the  American  Stamp  Act.  ...  If  the 
gentleman  cannot  understand  the  difference  between  in- 
ternal and  external  taxes,  I  cannot  help  it.  But  there  is 
a  plain  distinction  between  taxes  levied  for  the  purpose 
of  raising  revenue,  and  duties  imposed  for  the  accom- 
modation of  the  subject,  although  in  the  consequences, 
some  revenue  may  accidentally  arise  from  the  latter. 

"  The  gentleman  asks,  when  were  the  colonies  eman- 
cipated ?  I  desire  to  know  when  they  were  made  slaves. 
The  profits  to  Great  Britain  from  the  trade  of  the  colon- 
ies are  two  millions  a  year.  That  was  the  fund  that  car- 
ried you  triumphantly  through  the  last  war.  .  .  .  And 
shall  a  miserable  financier  come  with  a  boast,  that  he  can 
filch  a  peppercorn  into  the  exchequer  to  the  loss  of  mil- 
lions to  the  nation  ?  I  dare  not  say  how  much  higher 
these  profits  may  be  augmented.  Omitting  the  immense 
increase  of  people  in  the  northern  colonies  by  natural 
population,  and  the  migration  from  every  part  of  Europe, 
I  am  convinced  the  whole  commercial  system  may  be 
altered  to  advantage. 

"A  great  deal  has  been  said  without  doors  of  the 
strength  of  America.  It  is  a  topic  that  ought  to  be 
cautiously  meddled  with.  In  a  good  cause,  on  a  sound 
bottom,  the  force  of  this  country  can  crush  America  to 
atoms.  But  on  this  ground,  on  the  Stamp  Act,  when  so 
many  here  will  think  it  a  crying  injustice,  I  am  one 
who  will  lift  up  my  hands  against  it.  In  such  a  cause 
your  success  will  be  hazardous.  America  if  she  fall, 
would  fall  like  the  strong  man.  She  would  embrace  the 
pillars  of  the  State,  and  pull  down  the  Constitution  along 
with  her. 

"  Is  this  your  boasted  peace  ?  Not  to  sheathe  the 
sword  in  its  scabbard,  but  to  sheathe  it  in  the  bowels  of 


1766]  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  259 

your  countrymen  ?  Will  you  quarrel  with  yourselves  now 
the  whole  House  of  Bourbon  is  united  against  you  ? 
.  .  .  The  Americans  have  not  acted  in  all  things  with 
prudence  and  temper.  They  have  been  driven  to  mad- 
ness by  injustice.  Will  you  punish  them  for  the  madness 
you  have  occasioned  ?  Rather  let  prudence  and  temper 
come  first  from  this  side.  I  will  undertake  for  America 
that  she  will  follow  the  example. 

*  Be  to  her  faults  a  little  blind, 
Be  to  her  virtues  very  kind.* 

"  Upon  the  whole,  I  will  beg  leave  to  tell  the  House 
what  is  really  my  opinion.  It  is  that  the  Stamp  Act  be 
repealed  absolutely,  totally  and  immediately.  That  the 
reason  for  the  repeal  be  assigned,  because  it  was  founded 
on  an  erroneous  principle.  At  the  same  time  let  the 
sovereign  authority  of  this  country  over  the  colonies  be 
asserted  in  as  strong  terms  as  can  be  assigned  and  be 
made  to  extend  to  every  point  of  legislation  whatsoever. 
That  we  may  bind  their  trade,  confine  their  manufactures, 
and  exercise  every  power  whatsoever,  except  that  of  tak- 
ing their  money  out  of  their  pockets  without  their  own 
consent." 

This  speech  states  the  principles  which  Pitt  main- 
tained throughout  his  life.  Here  is  no  trace  of  that 
arrogance  which  led  Charles  Townshend  scornfully 
to  reject  the  colonists  as  allies,  or  Northington  to 
declare  that  America  must  submit.  There  is  an 
agreeable  irony  in  the  reflection  that  Northington 
believed  himself  a  better  patriot  than  William  Pitt. 
The  men  of  narrow  vision  saw  the  greatness  of  their 
<:ountry  vanish  if  she  did  not  compel  abject  submis- 
sion ;    but  the  man  who  had  dispatched  fleets  and 


26o  William  Pitt.  [1766 

armies,  who  knew  the  value  of  her  troops,  the  skill  of 
her  officers,  who  confessed  that  he  loved  honourable 
war,  was  not  intoxicated  by  power  ;  his  keener  insight 
and  more  generous  spirit  perceived  that  the  dominion 
of  Great  Britain  must  depend  on  the  spontaneous 
loyalty  of  her  people,  that  the  effective  sanction  of 
her  commands  must  be  sought  in  a  jealously  guarded 
equality  among  all  subjects.  Directing  and  super- 
intending authority  must  remain  in  the  centre  and 
seat  of  empire,  but  this  authority  must  be  used  in 
the  interests  of  what  Pitt  called  "  the  wide-extended 
whole."  Most  of  those  who  opposed  the  Stamp 
Act  argued  from  the  point  of  view  of  expediency, 
but  Pitt  laid  even  greater  stress  upon  the  principle 
involved.  Great  lawyers  believed  that  Parliament 
had  a  legal  right,  as  the  great  common  council  of  the 
Empire,  to  tax  any  subject  of  Great  Britain  ;  that 
the  only  ground  on  which  the  colonists  could  claim 
exemption  was  in  the  privileges  granted  by  their 
charters,  and  that  even  that  exemption  could  not 
prevail,  since  the  charters  granted  by  the  Crown 
were  powerless  to  abrogate  the  authority  of  Parlia- 
ment. In  strict  constitutional  law,  this  argument 
was  one  of  great  force,  but  Pitt  and  Camden  met  it 
with  the  dogma  that  taxation  was  inseparable  from 
representation, —  a  dogma,  they  said,  which  was 
the  essence  of  the  Great  Charter,  and  had  been 
strengthened  by  the  invariable  practice  with  regard 
to  the  colonies.  The  reply  that  the  Americans  were 
"  virtually  "  represented  was  a  misleading  artifice,  as 
was  clearly  shown  in  Daniel  Delaney's  pamphlet. 
Consider atioiis  on  the  Propriety  of  Taxing  the  QoL 


1766]  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  261 

onieSy  one  of  the  ablest  American  arguments,  from 
which  Pitt  freely  quoted  in  this  speech.*  "  The 
security  of  the  British  non-electors  against  oppres- 
sion is  that  their  oppression  will  fall  also  upon  the 
electors  and  the  representatives."  If  not  taxed  by 
Parliament  they  would  never  be  taxed  at  all. 

Questions  of  abstract  right  in  politics,  said  Burke, 
ought  to  be  left  to  the  schools,  for  there  only  they 
can  be  discussed  with  safety  ;  and  when  Parliament 
is  sovereign  and  bound  by  no  written  Constitution 
there  is  no  text  or  canon  by  which  its  right  can  be 
limited.  Camden  described  his  dogma  as  founded 
on  "  the  eternal  law  of  nature  "  that  what  is  a  man's 
own  cannot  be  taken  away  except  by  his  own  con- 
sent. A  great  living  authority,  Sir  William  Anson, 
remarks  that  ''  the  rhodomontade  of  Camden  on  this 
subject  exhibits  a  treatment  of  constitutional  law  and 
legal  history,  astonishing  in  a  man  who  enjoyed  some 
reputation  as  a  judge."  f  Pitt,  who  shared  the  delu- 
sion of  his  contemporaries  that  Camden  was  a  great 
lawyer,  called  the  speech  "  divine."  It  is  clear,  how- 
ever, that  Camden's  eternal  law  of  nature  might  have 
been  overruled  at  any  moment  by  Parliament,  and 
that  his  doctrine  of  the  inseparability  of  taxation 
and  representation  was  only  true  as  a  statement  of 
established  usage.  No  abstract  right  of  man  limited 
the  unfettered  sovereignty  of  Parliament,  and  in 
contending  against  the  right  of  Parliament,  Pitt  and 

*  See  Mr.  Tyler's  interesting  note,  op.  cit. ,  i. ,  1 1  i-i  13.  His  opinion 
that  Pitt  freely  used  the  pamphlet  is  confirmed  by  Shelburne's  letter 
to  Pitt  which  refers  to  the  great  honour  paid  by  the  latter  to  Delaney's 
argument  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Chatham  Correspondence,  iii., 
192.  f  Anson's  Grafton,  p.  68,  note. 


262  William  Pitt.  [1766 

Camden  were  compelled  to  call  in  aid  that  abstract 
right.  Grenville  was  technically  accurate  in  assert- 
ing that  what  Parliament,  the  supreme  lawmaker, 
formally  enacted,  could  not  be  "  illegal,"  but  the 
mind  which  relies  on  such  bare  logical  considerations 
and  builds  its  conclusions  on  that  narrow  basis  is 
certain  to  blunder  in  dealing  with  the  complicated 
task  of  government.  The  vision  and  sympathy  of 
Pitt  were  safer  guides,  and  his  treatment  of  this 
problem  was  an  anticipation  of  the  modern  view  of 
colonial  rights,  though  his  dogma  of  taxation  was  in 
theory  open  to  dispute.  Grenville  was  a  sincere 
Whig  and  believed  in  Parliamentary  government ; 
he  made  his  great  mistake  because  he  did  not  per- 
ceive that  a  perfectly  legal  exercise  of  Parliamentary 
authority  may  be,  in  fact  though  not  in  form,  as  pro- 
vocative and  as  tyrannical  as  the  levying  of  ship- 
money  through  the  prerogative. 

The  immense  effect  created  by  Pitt's  eloquence  is 
shown  by  Rockingham's  letter  to  the  King,  written 
on  the  following  day ;  he  observed  that  it  showed 
how  great  was  Pitt's  influence  whenever  he  chose  to 
appear.  *'  That  your  Majesty's  present  Administra- 
tion will  be  shook  to  the  greatest  degree,  if  no  fur- 
ther attempt  is  made  to  get  Mr.  Pitt  to  take  a  cordial 
part,  is  much  too  apparent  to  be  disguised."  *  On 
January  i6th,  Grafton  saw  the  King,  who  declared 
his  firm  resolution  that  no  declaration  should  be  car- 
ried to  Mr.  Pitt  from  him.  Grafton  went  to  Pitt  and 
had  a  long  conversation  with  him  the  same  evening. 
Pitt  said  that 


*  Rockingham  Memoirs^  i.,  270,  January  15th. 


17661  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  263 

"  if  he  was  called  to  form  a  proper  system,  it  must  be  with 
the  present  Secretaries  and  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury, 
they  co-operating,  willing  and  thoroughly  confidential ; 
any  honours  or  favours  to  be  shewn  to  the  Duke  of  New- 
castle, but  not  to  be  of  the  Cabinet  ;  as  his  perplexing 
and  irksome  jealousies  would  cast  a  damp  upon  the 
vigour  of  every  measure.     .     .     . 

"  He  owned  that  he  saw  with  pleasure  the  present 
administration  take  the  places  of  the  last  ;  he  came  up 
upon  the  American  affair,  a  point  on  which  he  feared 
they  might  be  borne  down."  * 

Encouraged  by  this  intervicMr,  Grafton  again  saw  the 
King,  who  was  persuaded  to  allow  Grafton  and  Rock- 
ingham to  take  a  message  from  him  to  Pitt.  Two 
questions  were  put ;  *'  First,  whether,  at  this  time, 
Mr.  Pitt  is  disposed  to  come  into  the  King's  serv- 
ice ;  second,  whether,  if  Lord  Temple  should  de- 
cline to  take  a  part,  this  will  be  a  reason  for  Mr. 
Pitt  declining  also."  On  the  first,  writes  Grafton, 
Pitt  said 

"  that  the  men  who  now  served  his  Majesty  would  be 
those  with  whom  he  should  wish  to  act,  but  there  must 
be  a  transposition  of  offices  ;  which  as  he  repeated  it  sev- 
eral times,  appeared  to  me  to  be  ill  received  by  Lord 
Rockingham  ;  but,  as  his  lordship  made  no  reply  and  I 
made  no  observation,  this  must  be  considered  only  as  my 
opinion."  f 

Pitt  said,  further,  that  Temple's  refusal  to  engage 
would  not  affect  his  own  action.     Nothing  came  of 
this  interview,  much  to  Grafton's  surprise  ;  Rocking- 
*  Anson's  Grafton,  pp.  65,  66.  \  Ibid.^  67, 


264  William  Pill.  [1766 

ham  was  unwilling  to  accept  a  transposition  of  offices, 
and  he  represented  to  the  King  that  Pitt's  proposals 
were  impracticable,  whereupon  Pitt  was  informed 
through  Shelburne  that  *'  His  Majesty  does  not 
judge  proper  to  have  any  further  proceeding  in  the 
matter."  *  It  is  hardly  matter  of  wonder  that  Pitt 
was  moved  to  resentment  by  these  constant  negotia- 
tions ending  in  nothing. 

The  policy  finally  adopted  by  the  Ministers  was  to 
repeal  the  Stamp  Act,  and  at  the  same  time  to  pass 
a  Declaratory  Act  affirming  the  right  of  Parliament  to 
tax  America.  They  succeeded,  after  many  struggles, 
and  mainly  by  the  active  assistance  of  Pitt,  in  carry- 
ing repeal.  The  colonists,  satisfied  by  this  great 
victory,  voted  thanks  to  the  King  and  Parliament, 
and  selected  for  special  praise  the  names  of  Pitt, 
Camden,  and  Barr6:  Their  Assemblies  gained  no 
honour  by  declining  to  vote  compensation  to  those 
who  had  suffered  by  the  riots,  but  a  period  of  peace 
followed  the  storm,  and  little  notice  was  taken  of 
Rockingham's  second  measure.  The  justification  of 
the  Declaratory  Act  is  usually  found  in  the  state 
of  parties,  which  made  it  impossible  to  carry  repeal 
without  some  counteracting  act  affirming  British  sov- 
ereignty. Rockingham  was  not  powerful  enough  to 
persuade  the  King  to  permit  repeal  alone,  and  the 
Ministry  existed  by  sufferance  of  the  King's  friends 
in  Parliament.  Although  this  reasoning  supplies  an 
apology  for  Rockingham,  the  Declaratory  Act  was 
an  evil  precedent,  and  a  fatal  acknowledgment  of  the 
strength  of  Grenville  and  the  Bedfords ;  a  deliberate 

*  Fitzmaurice's  Shelburne,  i.,  376. 


1766]  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  265 

reassertion  of  the  right  to  tax  was  an  invitation  to 
succeeding  Ministers  to  put  that  right  into  opera- 
tion. Pitt,  Camden,  and  Shelburne  opposed  the 
Act,  but  they  were  almost  alone.  In  other  respects 
the  Administration  adopted  a  liberal  and  enlight- 
ened policy  towards  the  colonists;  they  reduced  the 
duty  on  West  Indian  molasses  from  sixpence  to  one 
penny,  reaping  a  heavy  revenue  as  reward,  and  they 
opened  free  ports  in  the  islands.  Burke  was  un- 
doubtedly the  instigator  of  these  schemes,  which 
were  an  advance  on  the  ideas  of  the  mercantile  sys- 
tem. Pitt  himself  never  grasped  the  most  rudiment- 
ary notions  of  a  free-trade  philosophy. 

On  February  26th,  Rockingham  sent  a  formal 
memorandum  to  Mr.  Pitt.*  "  He  wished  to  God 
Mr.  Pitt  would  give  some  plan  for  arranging  an  Ad- 
ministration, putting  himself  at  the  head  of  it."  He 
desired  to  settle  arrangements  before  laying  the 
matter  before  the  King,  as  he  feared,  if  arrange- 
ments were  not  previously  settled,  it  might  end  in 
breaking  to  pieces  the  present  Administration.  Pitt 
declined  any  conference  on  the  formation  of  an  Ad- 
ministration, without  the  express  commands  of  the 
King;  to  obtrude  his  opinion  would  be  the  highest 
presumption.  "  The  King's  pleasure  and  gracious 
commands  alone  shall  be  a  call  to  me ;  I  am  deaf 
to  every  other  thing.  The  sum  of  things  is  that  I 
am  fitter  for  a  lonely  hill  in  Somersetshire  than  for 
the  affairs  of  State."  f 

Matters  continued  thus,  Grafton  and  Conway  be- 

*  Chatham  Correspondence^  ii.,  397-401. 

f  Ibid,y  iii.,  12.     Pitt  to  Shelburne,  February  24,  1766. 


266  William  Pitt,  [1766 

ing  well  aware  that  the  Ministry  might  fall  at  any  mo- 
ment ;  Rockingham,  however,  came  to  think  that  he 
could  stand  without  Pitt,  and  on  April  21st,  declared 
without  hesitation  to  Grafton,  that  "  he  would  never 
advise  his  Majesty  to  call  Mr.  Pitt  into  his  closet ; 
that  this  was  a  fixed  resolution  to  which  he  would 
adhere."  ^  In  May,  the  King  consulted  with  Hard- 
wicke,  who  declined  high  office ;  Hardwicke  writes : 
**  I  endeavoured  to  sound  the  King's  disposition  to- 
wards Mr.  Pitt,  but  he  appeared  not  at  all  favourable 
to  him  at  that  moment ;  called  his  popularity  an 
ignis  fatuus,  and  took  some  merit  in  not  having  ad- 
mitted him  to  state  his  own  terms,  which  he  knew 
were  levelled  against  his  present  Administration."  f 
In  the  same  month  Grafton  resigned,  on  the  express 
ground,  publicly  stated,  that  "  he  knew  but  one 
man,  Mr.  Pitt,  who  could  give  the  Ministers  strength 
and  solidity  ;  that  under  him  he  should  be  willing 
to  serve  in  any  capacity,  not  only  as  a  general  officer, 
but  as  a  pioneer,  and  would  take  up  a  spade  and 
mattock."  Though  Grafton  was  succeeded  by  the 
Duke  of  Richmond,  the  Ministry  was  on  the  eve  of 
dismissal.  The  death-blow  was  struck  by  the  Lord 
Chancellor,  who  had  always  been  the  foe  of  Rock- 
ingham ;  on  a  report  concerning  the  government  of 
Quebec  he  openly  quarrelled  with  his  colleagues, 
went  to  the  King  and  informed  him  it  was  impossi- 
ble for  the  Ministers  to  govern  the  country,  declined 
attending  the  Cabinet,  and  refused  to  hold  the  Great 
Seal  under  such  government.  On  July  12,  1766, 
the  Rockingham  Administration  ended. 

*  Anson's  Grafton^  p.  76.         f  Rockingham  Memoirs ^  i.,  337, 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   CHATHAM   MINISTRY, 
1 766- 1 769. 

GEORGE  III.,  when  he  ascended  the  throne, 
was  intent  upon  getting  rid  of  Pitt,  but  he 
seems  to  have  cherished  some  Hking  and  re- 
spect for  the  great  War  Minister  during  the  first  ten 
years  of  his  reign.  Pitt  was  extravagant,  almost 
oriental,  in  his  expressions  of  devotion  and  loyalty, 
and  his  critics  have  frequently  ridiculed  the  contra- 
diction between  his  patriot  speeches  and  exuberant 
professions  to  the  King.  "  The  least  peep  into  the 
royal  closet  intoxicated  him,"  said  Burke.  In  reality 
monarchy  captivated  his  imagination  very  much  as 
the  French  monarchy  captivated  the  imagination  of 
Burke,  and  although  George  III.  disliked  eloquence 
in  the  closet  as  sincerely  as  he  disliked  the  poetry  of 
Shakespeare,  Pitt's  magniloquent  submissiveness  was 
more  pleasing  than  the  calm  common  sense  of 
Rockingham,  or  the  hectoring  dictation  of  Bedford 
and  Grenville.  There  was  a  more  substantial  reason 
for  royal  encouragement  of  Pitt  in  his  ideas  concern- 
ing party,  which  the  King  was  determined  to  put 

267 


268  William  Pitt.  [1766- 

into  effect.  A  great  distinction  existed  between 
George  III.'s  objection  to  Government  by  connec- 
tions and  that  of  Pitt.  ''The  ruling  humour  of  the 
King,"  as  Horace  Walpole  astutely  said,  "  was  that 
whoever  attached  himself  to  any  First  Minister  was 
not  his  Majesty's  man."  On  the  other  hand,  Pitt's 
view  was  expressed  in  his  frequent  saying,  "  Connec- 
tions as  to  men  are  mean,  but  as  to  measures  com- 
mendable." It  is  clear  that  the  King  did  not  call  in 
Pitt  because  he  believed  in  his  measures ;  he  feared, 
possibly,  that  a  longer  tenure  of  ofifice  might  tend  to 
consolidate  the  Rockinghams,  though  he  knew  their 
weakness  at  the  time.  Whatever  his  reason,  the 
sovereign  determined  to  call  in  the  most  illustrious  of 
his  subjects,  and  Northington  was  commissioned  to 
write  to  Pitt  in  the  King's  name,  and  to  enclose  a 
letter  from  the  King  himself.'^  ''  Your  very  dutiful 
and  handsome  conduct  the  last  summer  makes  me 
desirous  of  having  your  thought  how  an  able  and 
distinguished  Ministry  may  be  formed,"  wrote  the 
King. 

Pitt  hurried  to  town  from  Burton  Pynsent,  wish- 
ing (he  wrote)  "  that  he  could  change  infirmity  into 
wings  of  expedition."  His  interview  with  the  King 
was  a  very  satisfactory  one,  as  no  objection  was 
raised  to  any  of  Pitt's  suggestions.  It  was  agreed 
that  the  basis  of  administration  should  be  found  in 
the  existing  Ministry,  but  the  disposal  of  offices  was 
postponed  until  Lord  Temple  should  arrive.     The 


*  The  letters  concerning  this   negotiation    are   in    Chatham  Cor- 
respondence^  ii.,  462-471.     See  also  Anson's  Grafton,  pp.  89-97. 


1769]  The  Chatham  Ministry.  269 

breach  of  opinion  on  the  American  question  had 
cooled  the  ardour  of  Pitt's  friendship  with  his  ally, 
but  Pitt  intended  to  offer  him  the  Treasury.  Tem- 
ple first  saw  the  King,  who  wrote  an  account  of  the 
interview  to  Pitt.  "  I  opened  to  him  a  desire  of 
seeing  him  in  the  Treasury.  I  am  sorry  to  see, 
though  we  only  kept  in  generals,  that  he  seems  to 
incline  to  quarters  very  heterogeneous  to  my  and 
your  idea  of  things,  and  almost  a  total  exclusion  to 
the  present  men, — which  is  not  your  plan."  On  the 
following  day  Pitt  and  Temple  had  a  long  conversa- 
tion, which  resulted  in  Temple's  definite  refusal  to 
take  office.  Pitt  offered  him  the  Treasury,  and  the 
appointment  of  his  own  Board,  but  further  than  that 
he  declined  to  go,  either  in  the  exclusion  of  present 
Ministers  or  the  appointment  of  others,  such  as 
Gower  and  Lyttleton,  whom  Temple  desired  to  in- 
clude. Temple's  view  was  that  he  ought  to  come  in 
on  an  equality  with  Pitt.  Pitt,  on  the  other  hand, 
declined  to  admit  this  equality.  Contemporary 
gossip  exaggerated  the  quarrel,  and  stories  of  high 
words  were  naturally  believed."^  As  a  matter  of  fact 
the  conversation  was  peaceably  conducted,  though 
Temple  was  greatly  enraged  ;  "  I  must  do  justice," 
wrote  Pitt  to  his  wife,  "  to  the  kind  and  affectionate 
behaviour  which  Lord  Temple  held  throughout  the 
whole  of  our  long  talk."  Temple  wrote  to  George 
Grenville : 

"  The   intended  basis   of   the  new,  virtuous,  and  pa- 
triotic Administration,   is  to  be  the  Rump  of  the  last, 


See,  e.  g.,  Walpole,  Memoirs  of  George  III.,  ii.,  243,  245. 


270  William  Pitt.  [1766- 

strengthened  by  the  particular  friends  of  Mr.  Pitt,  the 
whole  consisting  of  all  the  most  choice  spirits  who  did  in 
the  last  Session  most  eminently  distinguish  themselves  in 
the  sacrifice  and  honour  of  the  whole  legislature  and 
kingdom  of  Great  Britain.  At  the  head  of  this  I  might 
have  stood  a  capital  cypher,  surrounded  with  cyphers 
of  quite  a  different  complexion,  the  whole  under  the 
guidance  of  that  great  Luminary,  the  Great  Commoner, 
with  the  Privy  Seal  in  his  hand."* 

In  a  word,  Temple  declared  he  would  not  go  in  like. 
a  child  to  come  out  like  a  fool.  Pitt  had  done  ample 
justice  to  his  claims  by  offering  the  Treasury,  f 

Pitt  told  Grafton  that  the  King  heartily  adopted 
and  would  support  Mr.  Pitt's  determination  of  stand- 
ing in  the  gap  to  defend  the  closet  against  every 
contending  party,  and  his  plan  was  eventually  to 
select  the  men  of  the  best  talents  and  fortunes  and 
highest  rank  from  every  party.  But  no  immediate 
steps  were  taken  to  gather  together  a  coalition  of 
all  the  interests  and  all  the  talents,  as  the  Ministry 
consisted  of  the  followers  of  Pitt  and  Rockingham 
with  a  sprinkling  of  the  King's  friends.  Camden 
became  Lord  Chancellor,  Grafton  First  Lord  of  the 


*  Grenvilie  Papers,  iii.,  267.  Walpole  states  inaccurately  that 
Temple  insisted  on  bringing  in  George  Grenvilie. 

f  Lord  Temple  declined  a  visit  Pitt  proposed  making  to  Stowe 
and  published  a  bitter  pamphlet  written  by  Humphrey  Coates 
against  Pitt.  The  reply  contains  one  sentence  which  Chesterfield 
thought  was  in  Pitt's  style  :  "  Had  he  [Ld.  Temple]  not  fastened 
himself  into  Mr.  Pitt's  train,  he  might  have  crept  out  of  life  with  as 
little  notice  as  he  crept  in  ;  and  gone  off  with  no  other  degree  of 
credit,  than  that  of  adding  a  single  unit  to  the  bills  of  mortality." 


1769]  The  Chatham  Ministry,  271 

Treasury,  Northington  President  of  the  Council, 
Shelburne  and  Conway  Secretaries  of  State,  Granby 
Commander-in-Chief,  Saunders  First  Lord  of  the 
Admiralty,  and  Charles  Townshend,  after  great  hes- 
itation, Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  These  were 
men  of  abilities,  but  taken  alone  they  hardly  repre- 
sented any  greater  strength  in  Parhament  than  that 
which  Pitt's  first  Ministry  of  1756  possessed.  The 
process  of  securing  support  was  not  made  easier  by 
Pitt's  method  of  dealing  with  men,  which  was  some- 
what curt  and  offensive.     As  Grafton  wrote : 

**  His  views  were  great  and  noble,  worthy  of  a  patriot : 
but  they  were  too  visionary  to  expect  that  ambitious  and 
interested  men  would  co-operate  in  promoting  them. 
He  had  persuaded  himself,  that  his  weight  as  a  states- 
man, together  with  his  present  popularity,  and  the  cause 
well  supported  by  his  Majesty,  would  be  able  to  recon- 
cile every  man  to  those  parts  which  he  had  designed  for 
them.  Mr.  Pitt's  plan  was  Utopian,  and  I  will  venture 
to  add,  that  he  lived  too  much  out  of  the  world  to  have 
a  right  knowledge  of  mankind.* 

Rockingham  was  among  those  who  were  hostile 
to  Pitt,  and  when  the  latter  called  at  his  house  the 
ex-Minister  refused  to  see  him,  an  incident  that 
made  a  great  noise  in  the  world. 

"  I  took  my  chance  to-day  at  Lord  Rockingham's 
door,"  wrote  Pitt  to  Grafton,t  "  but  found  his  lordship 
going  out,  so  was  not  let  in.  I  meant  to  make  a  visit  of 
respect,  as  a  private  man  to  Lord  Rockingham,  and  had 
I  found   his  lordship,  to  have  told  him,  as  Pitt  to  Lord 

*  Anson's  G'ra//<?»,  p.  91.  \Ibid,^  98, 


272  William  Pitt.  [1766- 

Rockingham,  what  I  understood  to  be  the  King's  fixed 
intentions." 

The  outside  view  of  the  incident  is  given  in  a 
letter  from  Charles  Lloyd  to  Grenville : 

"  Lord  Rockingham  has  bearded  Mr.  Pitt  in  letting 
him  come  in  as  far  as  his  hall,  and  then  sending  word 
by  a  footman  that  he  could  not  see  him.  The  explana- 
tion he  gave  of  this  at  the  Board  to-day,  is,  that  as  a 
private  man  he  would  on  every  occasion  that  he  could, 
resent  Mr.  Pitt's  contemptuous  usage  of  him  ;  as  a  pub- 
lic man,  he  should  neither  oppose  nor  support  his  meas- 
ures. Pitt  says,  I  hear,  that  he  is  resolved  never  to  be 
angry  again,  but  that  if  this  had  happened  twenty  years 
ago,  Lord  Rockingham  should  have  heard  of  it,  for  he 
would  have  taken  no  such  usage  from  the  first  Duke  in 
the  land."  * 

Conway  had,  at  the  instigation  of  the  Cavendishes, 
persuaded  Pitt  to  make  this  visit ;  it  was  a  final  at- 
tempt to  bring  about  some  accommodation  between 
Pitt  and  the  ministerial  Whigs,  who  were  alienated  by 
the  dismissal  of  Rockingham  and  Richmond  to  make 
way  for  Grafton  and  Shelburne.f  It  was  a  great  weak- 
ness of  the  Administration  that  it  consisted  largely  of 
men  whose  chiefs  were  thus  disgusted  and  displaced. 

There  was  a  yet  more  serious  weakness  revealed 
before  the  Ministers  kissed  hands.  Grafton  depicts 
the  dismay  which  its  discovery  caused  to  his  col- 
leagues and  himself. 

"Being  appointed  to  the  Queen's  house,  I  found  Lord 
Northington  and  Lord  Camden  already  there.    Mr.  Pitt 

*  Grenville  Papers^  iii.,  283. 

\  Walpole,  Memoirs  of  George  III.,  ii.,  248-253, 


1769]  The  Chatham  Ministry.  273 

was  in  with  the  King.  The  two  Lords  appeared  to  be 
in  most  earnest  conversation,  and  much  agitated.  On 
perceiving  it,  I  naturally  was  turning  from  them,  after 
my  bow  ;  but  they  begged  to  impart  to  me  the  subject 
of  their  concern,  asking  me  whether  I  had  any  previous 
knowledge  of  Mr.  Pitt's  intention  of  obtaining  an  earldom, 
and  thus  placing  himself  in  the  House  of  Lords  ;  where- 
as our  conception  of  the  strength  of  the  Administration 
had  been,  till  that  moment,  derived  from  the  great  ad- 
vantage he  would  have  given  to  it  by  remaining  with  the 
Commons.  On  this  there  was  but  one  voice  among  us, 
nor  indeed  throughout  the  kingdom.  .  .  .  We  were 
all  struck  with  the  idea  of  the  prejudice  it  would  do  to 
his  new  Administration.* 

The  great  Commoner  had  decided  to  leave  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  a  strong  popular  outcry 
arose  against  what  was  alleged  to  be  a  desertion  of 
the  people.  The  City  of  London  had  prepared  to 
illuminate  their  public  buildings  as  a  sign  of  rejoic- 
ing on  his  return  to  power,  but  when  it  was  known 
that  Pitt  was  made  Earl  of  Chatham  the  orders  for 
illuminations  were  countermanded.  His  colleagues 
were  naturally  dismayed  ;  they  perceived  that  they 
had  no  man  in  the  Commons  who  was  the  equal  of 
Grenville,  and  that  rivalry  between  Conway  and 
Charles  Townshend  was  inevitable  in  that  assembly. 
As  Chesterfield  said,  Chatham's  enemies  rejoiced 
and  his  friends  were  sad  when  they  learned  that  he 
was  to  join  the  hospital  for  incurables.  George 
Grenville  pointed  the  analogy  between  the  cases  of 
Pulteney  and  Pitt,  and   insinuated  that   Bute  had 

*  Anson's  Grafton,  p.  97. 
z8 


2  74  William  Pitt,  [1766- 

offered  the  advice  to  George  III.  concerning  the  one 
that  Walpole  had  offered  to  George  II.  concerning 
the  other.  It  was  a  suspicious  age,  and  the  behef 
was  widely  entertained  that  Chatham  was  to  be  the 
tool  of  Bute.  This  loss  of  popularity  was  inevitable, 
as  the  people  could  no  longer  boast  that  Mr.  Pitt 
was  one  of  themselves,  that  he  served  the  nation 
without  title  or  reward  ;  yet  it  may  safely  be  said 
that  no  peerage  was  ever  more  worthily  earned,  and 
that  Chatham's  weak  health  made  constant  attend- 
ance in  the  House  of  Commons  no  longer  possible 
for  him.  He  was  an  invalid  all  his  life ;  a  high- 
strung,  nervous  system  had  been  feverishly  worked 
upon  by  his  arduous  and  exacting  labours  during 
the  war.  He  desired  to  return  to  power,  but  he 
must  clearly  have  realised  that  office  and  the  Com- 
mons combined  were  more  than  his  strength  could 
bear.  He  was  nearly  sixty  years  of  age,  and  his 
constitution  was  broken.  No  doubt  the  pomp  and 
circumstance  of  the  peerage  appealed  to  him,  for  he 
loved  splendour  and  display,  but  there  is  nothing 
whatever  in  his  acceptance  of  an  earldom  to  warrant 
the  suspicions  of  his  contemporaries.  On  July  30, 
1766 — the  day  on  which  the  new  Ministers  kissed 
hands,  the  peerage  was  gazetted.  "  I  know  the  Earl 
of  Chatham,"  wrote  the  King,  ''  will  zealously  give 
his  aid  towards  destroying  all  party  distinctions,  and 
restoring  that  subordination  to  government,  which 
can  alone  preserve  that  inestimable  blessing,  liberty, 
from  degenerating  into  licentiousness." 

Chatham  plunged  into  matters  of  high  policy  as 
soon   as   he   entered  office.     No  other  man  of  his 


1769]  The  Chatham  Ministry,  275 

time,  except  perhaps  Shelburne,  thought  very  much 
about  policy  when  engaged  in  negotiations  about 
office,  but  it  was  always  true  of  Chatham  that  if  he 
desired  power,  it  was  because  he  would  exercise  it 
for  noble  ends.  A  fortnight  before  the  King  sum- 
moned him  to  London  he  wrote  to  Lady  Stanhope 
in  his  grandiose  style:  ''Your  Ladyship  sees  how 
the  old  surly  English  leaven,  works  still  in  a  retired 
breast.  Farming,  grazing,  haymaking,  and  all  the 
Lethe  of  Somersetshire  cannot  obliterate  the  memory 
of  days  of  activity.  France  is  still  the  object  of  my 
mind."  *  English  statesmen  had  been  curiously 
oblivious  of  foreign  politics  since  the  peace,  but 
Choiseul  in  France  and  Grimaldi  in  Spain  had  been 
ceaselessly  preparing,  plotting,  and  watching  for  any 
opportunity  of  revenge  for  the  last  war.  The  Bour- 
bon alliance  was  active  and  close ;  exact  and  careful 
reports  of  English  politics,  of  affairs  in  America, 
were  regularly  sent  to  Choiseul.  The  news  that 
Chatham  was  once  more  in  power  created  anxiety 
in  France.f  Choiseul  wrote  to  the  French  Ambas- 
sador in  London : 

"  We  cannot  understand  Lord  Chatham's  motive  in 
leaving  the  House  of  Commons.  To  us  it  would  seem 
that  all  his  strength  was  bound  up  in  his  continuance  in 
that  Chamber,  and  he  is  very  likely  to  find  himself  as 
weak  as  Samson  after  his  locks  were  shorn.  What  we 
fear  is,  that  this  proud  and  ambitious  man,  having  lost 


♦Stanhope,  History  of  England,  v.,  app. 

f  "  Luckily  France  and  Spain  are  unable  to  commence  a  war  and 
their  fear  of  Mr.  Pitt's  entry  into  the  Ministry  is  quite  ridiculous." 
Yorke  (at  The  Hague)  to  Mitchell.     Chatham  Correspondence^  iii.,  42. 


276  William  Pitt.  [I766- 

the  popular  favour,  may  wish  to  recover  from  his  fall  by 
warlike  exploits  and  projects  of  conquest  that  will  give 
him  reputation.  I  am  convinced  that  his  quarrel  with 
Lord  Temple  will  not  last."  * 

Again  Choiseul  wrote  :  "  My  object  is  to  avert  sus- 
picion in  England  ;  I  recommend  that  unceasingly  to 
M.  de  Querchy  (in  London)  and  I  flatter  myself  I  have 
arranged  my  plan  with  Spain.  In  1770  we  shall  cer- 
tainly have  a  very  fine  army,  a  respectable  navy  and 
some  money  in  the  treasury."  f  Austria  still  inclined 
to  the  Bourbon  party,  intrigues  were  carried  on  all  over 
Europe,  especially  in  Sweden  and  Poland,  and  plans 
of  acquisition  were  carefully  prepared,  as  they  had 
been  in  regard  to  Prussia  before  the  last  war.  France 
was  to  obtain  Avignon  and  Corsica,  Spain  to  receive 
Portugal  and  Gibraltar,  while  new  schemes  for  the 
invasion  of  England  employed  the  leisure  of  Choi- 
seul, who  was  almost  as  ambitious  as  Chatham  him- 
self. X  Chatham,  in  fact,  though  he  had  "  inflexibly 
arraigned  "  the  peace,  realised  from  the  first  that 
Great  Britain  must  observe  it,  but  he  by  no  means 
intended  to  remain  idle  while  Choiseul  and  Grimaldi 
sought  alHances. 

In  1765,  one  of  the  questions  asked  by  Pitt  had 
been,  whether  his  Majesty  was  pleased  to  intend  a 
counter-system  to  be  formed  to  the  House  of  Bour- 
bon ;  he  could  not  serve  without  an  answer  to  that. 
He  avowed  himself  still  in  the  Prussian  Sentiment.  § 

*  Fitzmaurice's  Shelburne^  i.,  412. 

\  Ibid.,  ii.,  4. 

X  See  the  remarks  of  Lord  Edmund  Fitzmaurice,  Ibid,,  11.,  1-6. 

%  Rockingham  Memoirs,  1.,  195,  196. 


1769]  The  Chatham  Ministry.  277 

The  King  had  made  no  objection  to  this  part  of 
Pitt*s  poHcy,  but  no  serious  effort  had  been  made  to 
deal  with  the  position.  Now  that  Pitt  was  in  office, 
France  was  still  the  object  of  his  mind,  and  his  first 
thought  was  how  to  strengthen  the  position  of  Great 
Britain.  He  attempted  to  create  *'  such  a  firm  and 
solid  system  in  the  North,  as  may  prove  a  counter- 
balance to  the  great  and  formidable  alliance  framed 
by  the  House  of  Bourbon  on  the  basis  of  the  family 
compact."  *  The  whole  policy  is  outlined  in  the 
Cabinet  minute : 

"  Resolved,  That  his  Majesty  be  advised  to  take  the 
proper  measures  for  forming  a  triple  defensive  alliance, 
for  the  maintaining  of  the  public  tranquillity,  in  which 
the  Crown  of  Great  Britain,  the  Emperor  of  Russia  and 
the  King  of  Prussia  to  be  the  original  contracting  parties  ; 
with  provision  for  inviting  to  accede  thereto  the  Crowns 
of  Denmark  and  Sweden,  and  the  States-general  together 
with  such  of  the  German  or  other  powers  as  the  original 
contracting  parties  shall  agree  upon,  and  as  are  not  en- 
gaged in  the  family  compact  of  the  House  of  Bourbon."  \ 

Hans  Stanley  was  to  be  sent  as  Ambassador  to 
Russia,  with  instructions  to  proceed  first  to  Berlin 
and  open  the  whole  plan  to  Frederick.  In  some  re- 
spects the  moment  was  favourable  for  such  a  project ; 
Catherine  the  Great  was  aUied  with  Prussia  and 
desired  a  combination  of  the  North ;  she  had  suc- 
ceeded in  overthrowing  French  influence  in  Swe- 
den, and  was  endeavouring  to  persuade  Denmark  to 

♦Conway  to  Mitchell,  August  8,  1766,  Chatham  Correspondence^ 
iii.,  29. 

f  Chatham  Correspondence^  iii.,  31. 


1"]^  William  Pitt.  [1766- 

depend  upon  Russia  instead  of  upon  France.  A  pro- 
ject of  a  defensive  alliance  had  been  sent  from  St. 
Petersburg  to  London  in  the  previous  year,  but 
Russia  had  insisted  that  the  casus  fcederis  should 
extend  to  a  Turkish  war,  and  that  had  been  declared 
inadmissible  by  the  English  Ministers.*  Stanley  in 
a  letter  to  Chatham  points  out  some  of  the  difficul- 
ties he  anticipated.  Russia,  being  at  the  head  of 
affairs  in  the  North,  did  not  urgently  need  English 
assistance,  and  would  not  be  likely  to  accept  a  treaty 
except  on  her  own  terms  ;  she  might  at  any  moment 
return  to  "  the  old  system  of  a  close  connection  with 
the  House  of  Austria,  as  being  advantageous  in  dis- 
putes with  the  Turks  "  ;  Frederick  had  strengthened 
his  alliance  with  Russia,  and  he  desired,  even  with 
jealousy,  to  reserve  that  connection  exclusively  to 
himself. 

In  September,  1766,  Frederick's  Minister  told  Sir 
George  Macartney  f  that  ''if  Russia  had  any  intention 
of  concluding  a  treaty  with  us,  and  admitting  an  ex- 
ception for  Turkey,  he  had  orders  from  his  master  to 
oppose  it  in  the  strongest  manner.":]:  Prussia  was  a 
more  valuable  ally  to  Russia  than  England  could  be, 
and  the  success  of  Chatham's  scheme  depended  on 
Frederick. 

Frederick  received  the  project  coldly  ;  he  hinted 
at  the  bad  treatment  he  had  received  from  Great 
Britain  at  the  peace,  and  at  the  unsettled  and  fluc- 
tuating state  of  the  British  Government,  and  when 


*  Macartney  to  Mitchell,  July  22,  1766,   Chatham  Correspondence^ 
iii.,  36-37.  f  British  Ambassador  to  Russia. 

\  Chatham  Correspondence^  iii.,  36-40. 


1769]  The  Chatha77t  Ministry,  279 

Mitchell  assured  him  of  Chatham's  constant  devotion, 
he  replied,  **  I  fear  my  friend  has  hurt  himself  by 
accepting  of  a  peerage  at  this  time."  *  Frederick 
added  that  there  were  matters  likely  to  be  the  occa- 
sion of  a  war  between  Great  Britain  and  France  in 
which  Prussia  would  have  no  interest.  An  argumen- 
tative and  hortatory  dispatch,  which  bears  internal 
marks  of  Chatham's  authorship,  was  sent  by  Conway 
to  Mitchell,  f 

"  If  his  Prussian  Majesty  is  cordial,  if  he  is  dis- 
posed to  this  great  union,  we  meet  him  more  than  half 
way.  If  he  expects  to  be  entreated,  he  shall  know  it  is 
not  for  his  Majesty's  honour  to  go  further  than  the  step 
already  taken.  A  continuance  of  hesitation  will  be 
looked  on  as  a  refusal." 

Frederick,  however,  declined  the  proposal.  "  When 
the  storm  seems  to  be  rising,  then,  and  not  till  then, 
is  the  time  of  uniting  together,  and  of  concerting 
measures  to  ward  off  the  impending  danger,"  he 
said  to  Mitchell,  and  as  a  private  man  he  repeated 
that  he  could  not  forget  the  ill-usage  and  injustice 
he  had  met  with  at  the  time  of  making  the  last 
peace.  '•'  I  have  a  very  high  opinion  of  Lord  Chat- 
ham, and  great  confidence  in  him  ;  but  what  assur- 
ances can  you  give  me,  that  he  has  power,  and  will 
continue  in  office  ?":f  Bute's  treachery  was  not  to 
be  lightly  forgiven  by  Frederick  the  Great.  The 
negotiation  with  Russia  failed  on  the  former  ground 

♦Stanley  to  Chatham,  Ibid.,  iii.,  70. 

f  Ibid. ,  iii. ,  82-84. 

if  Mitchell  to  Chatham,  Chatham  Correspondence,  iii.,  139. 


28o  William  Pitt,  [1766- 

of  the  Turkish  question,  and  Great  Britain  had  se- 
cured no  solid  system  to  counterbalance  the  Bour- 
bons before  Chatham's  illness  removed  him  from 
activity.  Choiseul  was  successful  in  his  patient 
diplomacy,  and  when  the  time  came  to  strike  the 
blow  against  England  which  he  had  so  long  pre- 
meditated, the  enemy  of  France  was  without  an  ally 
in  Europe. 

Another  great  question  of  State,  the  relation  of 
the  East  India  Company,  with  its  vast  territorial  ac- 
quisitions, towards  the  Government,  engaged  Chat- 
ham's attention.  Was  the  new  Empire  won  during 
the  war  to  be  administered  solely  for  the  benefit  of  the 
trading  company,  its  ofificers  and  shareholders  ? 
The  years  immediately  following  the  conquests  of 
Clive  were  undoubtedly  the  worst  in  the  history  of 
English  government  in  India.  The  directors  could 
not  control  their  subordinates,  no  pressure  of  Eng- 
lish opinion  could  be  felt  at  so  great  a  distance,  and 
the  whole  system  was  one  of  violence  and  pillage. 
Chatham  held  the  view  that  the  Company  only 
shared  with  the  State  its  right  to  the  territorial  rev- 
enues which  had  been  granted  by  the  subject  princes. 

"  As  to  the  transcendent  object.  East  Indian  affairs, 
the  consideration  of  the  Company's  right  to  this  enorm- 
ous revenue  is  the  source  from  which  the  whole  trans- 
action must  flow  and  the  hinge  upon  which  must  turn 
the  very  essence  of  the  question  ;  namely,  whether  the 
Company  is  to  receive  on  this  head  indulgence  and  bene- 
fit from  the  public,  or  whether  they  are  to  impart  some 
to  the  public."  * 

"^Chatham  Correspondence^  iii.,  199. 


FREDERICK  THE  GREAT. 

FROM  THE  ENGRAVING  BY  MEYER  IN  THE  BRITISH  MUSEUM   PRINT  ROOM. 


1769]  The  Chatham  Ministry.  281 

The  method  by  which  Chatham  proposed  the 
determination  of  the  right,  was  to  throw  responsibil- 
ity upon  the  Commons.  Nowadays  such  a  principle 
would  be  stated  by  the  Cabinet,  but  Chatham  em- 
phatically declined  to  follow  what  would  now  be  the 
usual  course.  He  employed  Beckford  to  move  for 
an  inquiry  into  Indian  affairs,  which  was  granted 
notwithstanding  opposition.^ 

From  the  committee  of  inquiry  a  declaration 
would  be  obtained,* 

"  (a)  that  it  appears  by  the  Charter,  Acts,  etc.  that  the 
East  India  Company  was  instituted  for  the  purposes  of 
trade  ;  (<^)  that  the  acquisitions  and  cessions  of  territories 
and  revenues  obtained  in  India  for  the  retaking  of  Cal- 
cutta from  the  country  by  the  Company,  were  made  in 
consequence  of  actual  and  extensive  operations  of  war, 
and  succours  stipulated." 

By  this  Parliamentary  determination,  Chatham  in- 
tended to  establish  the  public  claim  to  a  share  in  the 
Indian  revenue. 

He  had,  however,  wider  ideas  of  Indian  policy, 
which  he  expressed  some  years  later  to  Shelburne, 
who  understood  as  well  as  his  leader  the  magnitude 
of  the  questions  involved.  When  the  East  India 
Regulation  Bill  of  1773  was  before  Parliament, 
Chatham  thus  expressed  himself  upon  it ; 

"India  teems  with  iniquities  so  rank,  as  to  smell 
to  earth  and  heaven.  The  reformation  of  them,  if 
formed  in  a  pure  spirit  of  justice,  might  exalt  the  nation, 

*  Fitzmaurice's  Shelburne,  ii.,  24,  25. 


282  William  Pitt. 


[1766- 


and  endear  the  English  name  throughout  the  world. 
The  putting  under  circumspection  and  control  the  high 
and  dangerous  prerogative  of  war  and  alliances,  so 
abused  in  India,  I  cannot  but  approve  ;  as  it  shuts  the 
door  against  such  insatiable  rapine  and  detestable  enorm- 
ities, as  have,  on  some  occasions,  stained  the  English 
name  and  disgraced  human  nature.  I  approve,  too,  of 
the  nomination  of  judges  by  the  Crown.  .  .  .  The 
abolition  of  inland  trade  on  private  account  is  highly- 
laudable,  as  far  as  that  provision  goes  ;  but  I  would  as- 
suredly carry  the  prohibition  further,  and  open  again  to 
the  native  and  other  Eastern  merchants  the  inland  trade 
of  Bengal,  and  abolish  all  monopolies  on  the  Company's 
account  ;  which  now  operate  to  the  unjust  exclusion  of 
an  oppressed  people,  and  to  the  impoverishing  and 
alienating  of  those  extensive  and  populous  provinces. 
The  hearts  and  good  affections  of  Bengal  are  of  more 
worth  than  all  the  profits  of  ruinous  and  odious  mono- 
polies." * 

Although  Chatham  never  grasped  this  most  im- 
portant of  imperial  problems,  in  the  detail  of  its  dif- 
ficulties, these  opinions  of  his  show  that  his  attitude 
toward  the  general  question  approached  that  which 
was  adopted  by  those  later  statesmen  who  have 
gradually  built  up  the  humane  and  beneficent  sys- 
tem of  to-day.  He  was  among  the  pioneers  of  good 
government.  But  in  this  as  in  his  foreign  policy  his 
endeavours  were  cut  short  by  illness,  and  their  im- 
mediate effect  was  seen  only  in  increased  division 
among  his  colleagues  ;  Grafton  and  Shelburne  agreed 
with  Chatham,  but  Conway  and  Charles  Townshend 


*  Chatham  Correspondence,  iv.,  286,  287, 


1769]  The  Chatham  Ministry.  283 

both  believed  that  the  Company  had  a  sole  right  to 
the  territorial  revenues. 

On  the  Irish  question,  also,  Chatham's  opinions 
were  in  advance  of  his  time.  He  would  have  granted 
to  Ireland  a  much  larger  share  of  constitutional  free- 
dom and  political  liberty  than  she  enjoyed  at  that 
date.  There  were  four  points  which  were  constantly 
agitated  in  Ireland  :  an  Act  to  shorten  the  duration 
of  Parliaments,  which  were  then  elected  for  the  King's 
life;  a  Bill  for  securing  the  independence  of  judges 
by  making  their  tenure  of  ofifice  depend  on  good 
behaviour  and  not  on  the  pleasure  of  the  Crown ;  a 
Habeas  Corpus  Act,  and  the  grievance  of  the  Pension 
list.  **  Lord  Chatham,"  says  Grafton,  "  inclined  to 
concede  to  the  Irish  Ministry  the  three  or  four  points 
at  which  they  previously  aspired."  ^  He  also  stipul- 
ated that  the  Lord  Lieutenant  should  permanently 
reside  in  Ireland,  not  only  for  the  brief  period  of 
six  months  in  two  years,  a  stipulation  intended  to 
curb  the  power  of  the  Lords  Justices  or  *'  under- 
takers," who  managed  affairs  in  the  Lord  Lieutenant's 
absence.  Towards  the  Irish  Parliament,  as  towards 
the  American  Assemblies,  he  advocated  what  he 
himself  called  great  tenderness,  and  all  the  softening 
and  healing  arts  of  Government  consistent  with  its 
dignity.  Thus,  in  1757,  during  Bedford's  viceroyalty, 
when  the  Irish  Commons  declined  to  vote  supplies, 
Pitt  wrote  to  the  Duke : 

"  With  regard  to  the  disagreeable  but  short  postpon- 
ing of  the  supply,  as  an  apprehension  of  the  privilege  of 


♦Anson's  Grafton,  p.  157. 


284  William  Pitt.  [1766- 

the  House  being  at  stake  had  first  raised  and  would  have 
nourished  dissatisfaction,  on  a  common  principle  of  Par- 
liamentary union,  found  at  all  times  more  comprehensive 
than  any  other  ;  your  Grace's  prudence,  in  not  persever- 
ing to  maintain  so  disadvantageous  and  difficult  a  ground, 
has  met  with  entire  approbation."  * 

The  same  principle  governed  him  in  relation  to  the 
absentee  tax  which  passed  the  Irish  Commons,  a  tax 
that  was  vehemently  opposed  by  Burke  and  the 
Rockinghams,  many  of  whom  would  have  suffered 
under  its  provisions.  In  a  letter  to  Shelburne,  who 
was  himself  a  great  absentee  Irish  landlord,  but 
through  Chatham's  influence  no  opponent  of  the  tax, 
Chatham  states  his  reason  for  declining  to  oppose 
the  act  of  the  Irish  Parliament : 

"  The  justice  or  policy  of  the  tax  is  not  the  question  ; 
the  single  question  is,  have  the  Commons  of  Ireland 
exceeded  the  powers  lodged  with  them  by  the  essential 
constitution  of  Parliament  ?  I  answer,  they  have  not ! 
and  the  interference  of  the  British  Parliament  would  in 
that  case,  be  unjust,  and  the  measure  destructive  of  all 
fair  correspondence  between  England  and  Ireland  for 
ever."  f 

He  declined  to  join  Rockingham  in  advising  the 
Crown  to  overrule  the  representative  Chamber  in  a 
matter  of  taxation.  It  was,  in  fact,  a  fundamental 
rule,  which  Pitt  consistently  observed,  that  supplies 
are  a  free  grant  by  the  Commons,  and  he  applied  this 
to  the  Irish  Parliament  in  1 761,  when  an  attempt 
was  made  to  establish  the  principle  that  all  Money 

*  Chatham  Correspondence,  i.,  285.  f  Ibid.,  iv.,  320. 


1769]  The   Chatham  Ministry.  285 

Bills,  even  at  the  commencement  of  a  new  reign, 
should  originate,  not  with  the  Privy  Council,  but 
with  the  representative  Chamber.  A  severe  repri- 
mand was  addressed  to  the  Irish  Council.  *'  Mr. 
Pitt  alone  took  up  the  defence  of  the  Irish  Commons, 
and  would  not  sign  the  message,  which  thirty-five 
others  of  the  English  Privy  Council  who  were 
present  signed."*  Thus  Pitt  had  illustrated  by  his 
own  action  as  Minister  the  principle  of  his  great 
speech  against  the  Stamp  Act.  While  there  is  no 
evidence  in  such  opinions  as  these  of  a  great  consist- 
ent Irish  policy,  or  even  of  that  appreciation  of  the 
deeper  evils  existing  in  Ireland  which  Chatham's 
son  displayed,  they  are  the  expression  of  a  generous 
and  liberal  mind.  It  is  remarkable  that  during  his 
glorious  quadrennium  Pitt  was  almost  as  popular  in 
Ireland  as  in  Great  Britain  ;  the  Irish  Parliament 
was  even  more  devoted  to  his  views  than  that  of 
which  he  was  himself  member,  and  its  members  in- 
curred the  displeasure  of  the  King  by  omitting  from 
their  address  all  eulogy  of  the  peace.  The  merchants 
and  traders  of  Dublin  expressed  to  Pitt  their  en- 
thusiastic admiration  for  his  career,  and  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  any  other  distinctively  English 
statesman  has  been  commemorated,  as  he  was,  by  a 
statue  erected  in  his  honour  by  the  citizens  of  Cork,  f 
With  ideas  such  as  these  on  foreign  affairs,  India 
and  Ireland,  Chatham  might  in  his  Ministry  have 
rendered  positive  service  to  the  State,  in  addition  to 
that  all-important  negative  service  of  averting  the 

*  Walpole's  Memoirs  of  George  III.,  i.,  24. 
f  Lecky,  History  of  England,  iv.,  365. 


286  William  Pitt,  [1766- 

American  peril.  But  a  gloomy  fate  overshadowed 
the  Administration  from  its  very  beginning.  The 
chief  Minister  was,  as  he  said,  fitter  for  a  lonely  life 
in  Somersetshire  than  for  the  cares  of  State,  and  his 
bad  health  rendered  impossible  that  constant  leader- 
ship which  was  necessary  to  keep  his  colleagues  to- 
gether. ParHament  met  on  November  nth,  and  on 
Athis  day  Chatham  made  his  first  speech  in  the  Lords. 
A  bad  harvest  had  produced  great  scarcity,  and  in 
order  to  prevent  a  further  diminution  of  the  food- 
supply  Ministers  had  by  proclamation  laid  an  em- 
bargo on  the  export  of  corn.  Such  a  proclamation 
was  technically  extra-legal,  and  those  who  acted  un- 
der it  subjected  themselves  to  penalties ;  Ministers 
proposed  to  pass  an  Act  indemnifying  the  inferior 
agents,  but  the  Opposition  believed  they  had  found 
an  opportunity  of  damaging  the  Administration  ; 
they  declaimed  against  the  stretching  of  the  prerog- 
ative, and  moved  to  include  Ministers  themselves  in 
the  proposed  indemnity.  Chatham  began  his  speech 
with  a  characteristic  and  "  eloquent  description  of 
his  feelings,  from  the  new  situation  in  which  he 
spoke,  in  an  unaccustomed  place,  before  the  most 
knowing  in  the  laws,  in  the  presence  of  the  heredit- 
ary legislators  of  the  realm,  whilst  he  could  not  look 
upon  the  House  without  remembering  that  it  had 
just  been  filled  by  majesty,  and  by  all  the  tender 
virtues  which,  encompass  it.*'  How  different  was 
this  last  characteristic  encomium  from  the  haughty 
address  to  the  Speaker,  "  Even  that  Chair,  Sir, 
sometimes  looks  towards  St.  James's  !  "  His  defence 
of  the  embargo  was  perfectly  constitutional:  it  was 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


1769]  The  Chatham  Ministry.  287 

an  act  of  power  justifiable  before  Parliament  on  the 
ground  of  necessity."*  The  Opposition  were  right 
in  compelling  Ministers  themselves  to  ask  for  indem- 
nification, and  Chatham  accepted  this  view.  It  was 
a  maladroit  remark  of  Camden's,  that  this  was  at 
worst  but  a  "  forty-days*  tyranny  "  which  increased 
popular  interest  in  the  affair,  and  created  an  opening 
for  much  eloquence  against  the  prerogative  from 
Mansfield,  Grenville,  and  other  warm  friends  of  lib- 
erty. A  month  later  the  Bill  of  Indemnity  was  dis- 
cussed in  the  Lords,  and  a  famous  scene  occurred 
between  Richmond  and  Chatham,  who  at  this  date, 
December  loth,  had  been  harassed  into  a  feverish 
irritabihty  by  abortive  negotiations  with  the  various 
parties. 

"  Lord  Chatham  said,  that  when  the  people  should  con- 
demn him,  he  should  tremble  ;  but  would  set  his  face 
against  the  proudest  connections  in  this  country.  The 
Duke  of  Richmond  took  this  up  with  great  heat  and 
severity,  and  said,  he  hoped  the  nobility  would  not  be 
brow-beaten  by  an  insolent  Minister.  The  House  call- 
ing him  to  order,  he  said  with  great  quickness,  he  was 
sensible  truth  was  not  to  be  spoken  at  all  times,  and  in 
all  places.  Lord  Chatham  challenged  the  Duke  to  give 
an  instance  in  which  he  had  treated  any  man  with  insol- 
ence ;  if  the  instance  was  not  produced,  the  charge  of 
insolence  would  lie  on  his  Grace.  The  Duke  said  he 
could  not  name  the  instance  without  betraying  private 
conversation  ;  and  he  congratulated  Lord  Chatham  on 
his  new  connection,  looking,  as  he  spoke,  at  Lord  Bute."  f 

*  Flood  to  Charlemont,  Chatham  Correspondence^  iii.,  127. 
f  Walpole's  Memoirs  of  George  III.,  ii.,  290,  291. 


William  Pitt.  Li 766- 


Richmond  received  credit  for  showing  greater 
courage  to  Chatham's  face  than  any  member  had 
ever  shown  in  the  Commons.  He  had  "  avenged 
his  party  at  a  blow,"  according  to  Walpole.  It  was 
beheved  that  Chatham  was  cowed  by  this  imperious 
young  nobleman,  because  he  did  not  appear  again 
in  the  Lords  during  his  Ministry,  and  contempor- 
aries attributed  Chatham's  retirement  from  activity 
to  his  dread  of  Richmond.  It  is  only  his  contemp- 
oraries who  can  accept  theories  such  as  that  about  a 
great  man.  Nevertheless  it  is  certain  that  Chatham, 
though  his  greatest  orations  were  delivered  to  the 
peers,  never  acquired  the  personal  ascendancy  over 
the  Lords  which  he  exercised  at  will  over  the  Com- 
mons. "The  silence  of  the  place,  and  the  decency 
of  debate  there,"  says  Walpole,  who  was  a  connois- 
seur of  oratory  as  of  architecture,  "■  were  not  suited 
to  the  inflammatory  eloquence  by  which  Lord  Chat- 
ham had  been  accustomed  to  raise  hurras  from  a 
more  numerous  auditory."  The  peers,  for  the  most 
part,  were  cool  and  cynical  critics ;  they  distrusted 
passion  ;  they  looked  with  suspicion  upon  this  man, 
who  paid  ornate  compliments  to  their  ancestry  and 
yet  spoke  with  haughtiness  and  pride  and  an  inex- 
plicable authority.  Northington  prided  himself  on 
being  no  patron  of  the  people,  and  he  was  a  type  of 
the  new  creation  whom  the  Lords  welcomed  from 
the  lower  Chamber,  but  Chatham  declared  that 
when  the  people  should  condemn  him  he  would 
tremble ! 

It  was  not,  however,  any  failure  in  Parliament  that 
weakened  his  Ministry,  but  a  course  of  unfortunate 


1769]  The  Chatham  Ministry.  289 

negotiations  which  took  place  during  the  autumn. 
These  began  with  an  overture  from  Lord  Tavistock, 
on  behalf  of  the  Bedford  connection,  to  Grafton,  who 
was  told  that  Bedford  disclaimed  the  Grenvilles,  and 
would  be  ready  to  assist  on  no  other  conditions  than 
places  for  Lord  Gower,  Rigby,  and  Vernon.*  Chat- 
ham, however,  would  not  offer  more  than  the  Admir- 
alty for  Gower,  and  this  was  declined  in  a  friendly 
letter. f  Sir  Charles  Saunders  was  appointed.  Bris- 
tol was  given  the  Lord-Lieutenancy  of  Ireland,  and 
Hertford  became  Master  of  Horse,  with  a  promise 
of  the  Lord  Chamberlain's  ofifice ;  these  promotions 
urged  Lord  Northumberland,  Bute's  son-in-law,  to 
insist  upon  a  dukedom,  according  to  a  previous  ar- 
rangement, which  Chatham  fulfilled.  This,  together 
with  a  reinstatement  of  Bute's  brother,  Stuart  Mac- 
kenzie, who  had  been  dismissed  by  Grenville  from  a 
Scottish  office  entirely  as  a  slight  to  the  King  and 
Bute,  gave  colour  to  the  popular  suspicion  that 
Chatham  was  in  league  with  the  favourite.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  Chatham,  after  Bute's  retirement  from 
Government,  regarded  him  as  one  of  the  leaders  of  a 
connection,  and  he  was  willing  to  include  some  of 
his  followers  in  place,  in  accordance  with  his  scheme 
of  uniting  the  various  sections  in  one  administration. 
In  October,  Chatham  went  to  Bath,  and  then  the 
negotiations  with  Bedford  were  renewed ;  in  a  con- 
versation with  Horace  Walpole  the  Minister  talked 
very  frankly,  declared  his  absolute  belief  in  the 
King's  sincerity,  and   said   that  he  wished  to  take 

*  Walpole's  Memoirs  of  George  III.,  ii.,  252, 
f  Anson's  Grafton,  p.  100. 


290  William  Pitt.  [1766- 

some  of  all  parties.  None  the  less  he  and  Bedford 
did  not  come  to  terms,  though  they  parted  with 
friendHness,  the  Duke  convinced  that  the  matter 
would  be  arranged.*  *'  Not  a  word  was  spoken  of  the 
subject  of  America,  nor  of  any  arrangements.  They 
parted  in  similar  conceptions  that  this  interview  was 
merely  preparatory  to  another ;  and  this  accounts 
for  a  great  part  of  the  Bedford  interest  being  neuter 
at  the  meeting  of  Parliament."  f 

Unfortunately,  when  Chatham  returned  to  Lon- 
don, he  made  a  disastrous  error,  by  removing  Lord 
Edgcumbe  from  the  post  of  Treasurer  of  the  House- 
hold, a  position  he  wanted  for  Sir  John  Shelley. 
Edgcumbe  was  offered  in  a  discourteous  way  a 
Lordship  of  the  Bedchamber,  and,  on  his  refusing 
this,  was  dismissed  from  his  place.  He  was  a  favour- 
ite with  the  Rockinghams,  and  Bessborough  at- 
tempted to  accommodate  the  matter  by  offering  to 
resign  his  own  place,  but  this  Chatham  haughtily 
declined,  as  though  it  had  been  a  factious  proceeding. 
Edgcumbe's  dismissal  created  the  greatest  indigna- 
tion and  there  was  an  exodus  of  leading  Whigs, 
— Portland,  Bessborough,  Scarborough,  Saunders, 
Keppel,  and  Meredith  all  resigning.  The  most 
influential  men  in  the  last  Ministry  thus  formally 
joined  the  Opposition  in  the  last  week  of  November. 
Chatham  was  very  angry,  but  determined  to  stand 
to  his  guns ;  he  relied  on  the  firmness  of  the  King 
and  prepared  to  fight  the  factions.     The  negotiations 


*  Walpole's  Memoirs  of  George  III.,  ii.,  261,  262  ;   Bedford  Cor- 
respondence, iii.,  348-354  ;  Anson's  Grafton,  p.  102. 
f  Chatham  Correspondence,  iii.,  122,  quoting  the  Political  Register^ 


1769]  The  Chatham  Ministry.  291 

with  Bedford  were,  however,  renewed..  Rigby  op- 
posed Beckford's  motion  for  an'  inquiry  into  Indian 
affairs,  and  this  made  it  doubt'ful  if  he  ought  to 
receive  a  place.  The  following  day  Chatham  wrote 
to  Grafton : 

"  Unions,  with  whomsoever  it  be,  give  me  no  terrors  ; 
I  know  my  ground  and  I  leave  them  to  indulge  their 
own  Dreams.  If  they  can  conquer  I  am  ready  to  fall ; 
but  I  shall  never  consent  to  take  any  premature  step 
from  the  consideration  of  what  Rigby's  Manoeuvres  may 
produce.  I  doubt  whether  that  gentleman  can  be  ad- 
mitted .  .  .  faction  will  not  shake  the  Closet^  nor 
gain  the  publick  .  .  .  the  Closet  is  firm,  and  there 
is  nothing  to  fear."  * 

But  none  the  less  an  offer  was  made  of  a  Cabinet 
office  for  Gower  and  other  places  for  Rigby  and 
Weymouth.  This  the  King  called  "  my  ultima- 
tum." f  Bedford  asked  for  more  places,  was  refused, 
and  on  the  next  day  went  out  of  town  to  Woburn. 
Thus  Chatham  found  himself  opposed  by  both  Rock- 
inghams  and  Bedfords,  as  well  as  by  his  own  rela- 
tions, the  Grenvilles.  He  needed  all  his  own 
courage  and  all  the  King's  firmness  to  meet  so  pow- 
erful a  union.  George  III.  was  ready  for  the  fray, 
and  the  following  passage  from  the  sovereign  to  his 
Minister  illustrates  the  spirit  of  both.  It  was  writ- 
ten after  receiving  news  of  Bedford's  refusal  to  join. 

"  I  know  the  uprightness  of  my  cause,  and  that  my 
principal  Ministers  mean  nothing  but  to  aid  in  making 
my  people  happy.     .      .      .      This  hour  demands  a  due 

♦Anson's  Gra/fon,  p.  107.     f  Chatham  Correspondence^  iv.,  136. 


292  William  Pitt.  [1766- 

firmness  ;  't  is  that  has  already  dismayed  all  the  hopes 
of  those  just  retired,  and  will,  I  am  confident,  show 
the  Bedfords  of  what  little  consequence  they  also  are. 
A  contrary  conduct  would  at  once  overturn  the  very  end 
proposed  at  the  formation  of  the  present  administration  ; 
for  to  rout  out  the  present  method  of  parties  banding 
together,  can  only  be  obtained  by  a  withstanding  their 
unjust  demands,  as  well  as  the  engaging  able  men,  be 
their  private  connections  where  they  will."  * 

The  ability  of  the  administration  was  certainly 
increased  by  the  appointment  of  Sir  Edward  Hawke 
to  the  Admiralty,  though  the  grant  of  minor  places 
to  the  King's  friends  added  neither  lustre  nor  credit ; 
but  the  primary  condition  of  a  successful  contest 
with  the  Opposition  was  unanimity  among  the  lead- 
ing Ministers  themselves.  There  were  many  causes 
that  divided  :  in  the  first  place,  Pitt's  withdrawal 
from  the  Commons  opened  a  wide  door  to  the  ambi- 
tion of  Charles  Townshend,  who  believed  he  could 
make  himself  First  Minister,  and  Chatham  did  not 
treat  Conway,  the  leader  of  the  House,  with  that 
complete  confidence  which  alone  could  give  him  the 
authority  necessary  to  discomfit  the  brilliant  and 
audacious  Townshend  ;  again,  Chatham's  two  most 
sincere  supporters,  Grafton  and  Shelburne,  were  not 
on  friendly  and  open  terms,  and  did  not  make  an 
effective  combination ;  on  the  most  important  ques- 
tions laid  before  Parliament,  the  East  India  Com- 
pany, in  Chatham's  own  words,  "a  certain  infelicity 
fermented  and  soured  the  councils  of  his  Majesty's 
servants  "  :  and  there  was  the  permanent  difficulty 

*  Chatham  Correspondence^  iii.,  137. 


1769]  The  Chatham  Ministry.  293 

that  Conway  and  the  few  Rockinghamites  remaining 
owned  a  divided  allegiance.  Nevertheless,  if  Chat- 
ham had  been  in  full  possession  of  his  natural  pow- 
ers, his  authority  was  great  enough  to  overcome 
these  difficulties ;  perhaps  the  most  convincing  of 
all  testimonies  paid  to  his  greatness  by  those  who 
associated  with  him  was  the  remark  of  Townshend 
to  Grafton  after  a  Cabinet  Council. 

"  The  business  (writes  Grafton)  was  on  a  general  view 
and  statement  of  the  actual  situation  and  interests  of  the 
various  powers  in  Europe  :  Lord  Chatham  had  cert- 
ainly taken  the  lead  in  this  consideration  in  so  masterly 
a  manner,  as  to  raise  the  admiration  and  desire  of  us  all 
to  co-operate  with  him  in  forwarding  these  views.  Mr. 
Townshend  was  particularly  astonished,  and  owned  to 
me,  as  I  was  carrying  him  in  my  carriage  home,  that 
Lord  Chatham  had  just  shown  to  us  what  inferior  ani- 
mals we  were :  and  that,  as  much  as  he  had  seen  of  him 
before,  he  did  not  conceive,  till  that  night,  his  superior- 
ity to  be  so  very  transcendent."  * 

Such  was  the  personal  influence  of  Chatham  when 
he  was  present  in  Council  over  the  least  tractable  of 
his  colleagues ;  but  it  was  dependent  upon  his  pre- 
sence, and  could  not  be  exercised  from  a  sick  room 
at  Bath.  Charles  Townshend  **  soon  forgot  the  great 
and  extensive  mind  of  the  Minister,"  and  became 
absorbed  in  his  two  great  political  ambitions,  a  re- 
venue drawn  from  America  and  a  peerage  for  his 
wife. 

When   Parliament   rose   in    December,   Chatham 


♦Anson's  Grafton^  p.  105. 


294  William  Pitt.  [1766- 

went  to  Bath.  He  was  not  sensible,  nor  would  he 
be  persuaded,  said  the  most  loyal  of  his  friends,  of 
the  many  difficulties  under  which  his  administra- 
tion laboured,  though  they  were  viewed  with  real 
concern  by  the  nation  at  large."^  On  January  nth, 
he  set  out  for  London,  but  a  bad  attack  of  gout 
compelled  him  to  return  to  Bath,  where  he  remained 
till  February  15th,  when  he  got  as  far  as  the  Castle 
Inn,  Marlborough.  Here  again  he  was  taken  ill,  and 
remained  in  complete  seclusion  until  the  first  day  of 
March,  when  he  reached  London.  Lord  Holland 
used  to  tell  a  traditional  story  that  when  Chatham 
was  at  the  Castle  Inn,  one  of  the  greatest  coaching 
houses  of  the  old  time,  all  the  servants  of  the  inn 
were  ordered  to  array  themselves  in  the  Pitt  livery ! 
This,  however,  was  not  the  fact,  but  merely  a  surmise 
occasioned  by  the  number  of  servants  Chatham  car- 
ried about  with  him  on  his  journeys. f  When  he 
reached  London,  Chatham  was  met  by  untoward 
news.  On  February  27th,  the  Land  Tax,  proposed 
at  the  usual  rate  of  four  shillings  in  the  pound,  had 
been  reduced  to  three  on  the  motion  of  Dowdeswell 
assisted  by  the  country  gentlemen  of  all  parties,  who 
naturally  welcomed  a  relief  to  the  land.  It  was  the 
first  time  since  the  Revolution  that  a  Ministry  had 
been  outvoted  on  a  Money  Bill,  and  Townshend,  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  was  blamed  for  his 
half-hearted  support  of  his  own  measure.  For  his 
conduct  over  the  Indian  question,  which  was  in  de- 
clared opposition  to  the  views  of  his  chief,  Town- 


*  Anson's  Grafton^  p.  109. 

f  See  Stanhope,  Hist,  of  Eng.^  v.,  176,  n« 


1769]  The  Chatham  Ministry.  295 

shend  was  more  severely  blamed.  On  March  4th, 
Chatham  wrote  to  Grafton,  and  it  was  the  last  effort 
of  his  will  before  it  relapsed  into  strange  inertia, 
that  he  and  Townshend  could  not  remain  in  office 
together;  *'or  Mr.  C.  Townshend  must  amend  his 
proceedings."  "^  Townshend's  office  was  offered  to 
Lord  North,  but  refused,  and  immediately  afterwards 
Chatham's  illness  took  a  new  form,  "a  suppressed 
gout  falling  upon  his  nerves,"  and  his  mind  was 
overclouded  by  gloom  and  melancholy  that  rendered 
him  utterly  incapable  of  action  or  decision  or  advice. 
If  another  week  had  been  spared  to  him,  he  would 
probably  have  got  rid  of  Townshend,  and  the  his- 
tory of  England  and  America  might  have  been 
changed.  "  From  this  time  Chatham  became  invis- 
ible," writes  Grafton,  "even. to  the  Lord  Chancellor 
and  myself ;  and  he  desired  to  be  allowed  to  attend 
solely  to  his  health,  until  he  found  himself  to  be 
equal  to  any  business.  Here,  in  fact,  was  the  end  of 
his  administration."  f 

The  effacement  of  Chatham  meant  the  rise  of 
Townshend,  who  had  all  the  aids  which  influence  in 
the  House  of  Commons  can  give.  As  Burke  said, 
scarcely  had  one  great  luminary  sunk  beneath  the 
western  horizon  than  another  appeared  in  the  east, 
and  was  for  his  hour  the  lord  of  the  ascendant. 
Talking  to  Grenville  a  fortnight  after  his  escape  from 
dismissal,  Townshend  jested  about  Chatham's  invis- 
ibility. *'  He  stated  Lord  Chatham  in  the  most  ridic- 
ulous light  possible,  showing  how  totally  inaccessible 
he  was  ;   in  a  morning,  not  up  ;    at  noon,  taking  the 

*  Anson's  Grafton,  p.  124.  \  Ibid, 


296  William  Pitt.  [1766- 

air ;  in  the  evening,  reposing,  and  not  to  be  fatigued."^ 
Realising  that  he  no  longer  need  fear  the  chief,  and 
contemptuously  disregarding  others,  Townshend  ex- 
erted his  brilliant  talents  to  persuade  the  Commons 
to  prolong  the  East  Indian  Company's  monopoly 
and  to  raise  a  revenue  from  America.  While  the 
nominal  leader  lay  ill  at  Hampstead,  his  poHcy  as 
regards  India  was  contemptuously  set  aside ;  as  re- 
gards America  it  was  recklessly  reversed.  Town- 
shend was  *'  the  child  of  the  House,"  as  Burke  said  ; 
he  was  sensitive  to  the  slightest  change  in  opinion  ; 
devoid  of  either  principle  or  prejudice  himself,  he 
was  an  astute  reader  of  prejudices  in  others  and 
knew  how  to  express  a  prejudice  in  dignified  lan- 
guage, and  give  it  the  air  of  a  principle.  The  charm 
of  his  wit  and  style,  his  exuberant  spirits  and  bril- 
liant talk,  made  him  the  mode  and  fashion  of  the 
hour.  His  character  makes  a  striking  contrast  to 
that  of  Chatham  ;  both  men  rose  to  power  by  means 
of  eloquence,  and  their  success  illustrates  the  good 
and  evil  side  of  a  political  system  in  which  ability  to 
speak  well  is  the  most  profitable  talent.  The  one 
flattered,  tricked,  and  cajoled,  was  everything  by 
turns  and  nothing  long;  the  other  dominated  the 
House,  and  depressed  all  rivals  by  haughty  and  im- 
perious speech.  But  the  result  was  the  same,  and 
influence  with  the  Commons  gave  Townshend  the 
power  to  control  the  Cabinet  after  Chatham  deserted 
it,  as  it  had  given  the  older  statesman  power  to  force 
himself  upon  Newcastle. 


*  Grenville  Papers,  iv.,  220. 


1769]  The  Chatham  Mmistry.  297 

The  Rockingham  settlement  of  the  American  diffi- 
culty was  threatened  on  two  sides.  In  Great  Britain, 
though  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  was  popular  at  the 
time,  a  reaction  against  the  Americans  speedily  set 
in,  and  the  desire  for  a  revenue  from  the  colonies 
grew  stronger ;  this  view  was  supported  with  almost 
sinister  persistence  by  George  Grenville,  and  it  was 
shared  by  the  sovereign,  the  majority  in  Parliament, 
and  a  large  section  of  the  people.  Among  the 
colonists  themselves,  the  outburst  of  gratitude  that 
followed  repeal  spent  itself  quickly,  and  a  spirit  of 
general  resistance  to  British  authority  began  to  show 
itself.  It  was  inevitable  that  it  should  be  so ;  the 
Stamp  Act  had  raised  the  whole  question  of  govern- 
ment, its  repeal  had  shown  how  much  might  be 
effected  by  colonial  opposition,  and  had  created  a 
delusive  estimate  of  the  number  and  strength  of 
those  who  supported  colonial  views  in  Great  Britain. 
The  army  which  Grenville  established  in  America 
was  one  great  cause  of  discontent ;  the  Americans 
obstinately  declined  to  admit  that  it  was  necessary, 
and  still  more  fervently  declined  to  obey  the  Act 
that  obliged  them  to  provide  the  English  troops 
with  quarters,  fire,  and  other  necessaries.  The  As- 
sembly of  New  York  refused  to  obey  the  Mutiny 
Act  which  expressed  this  obligation,  and  as  a  conse- 
quence the  power  of  the  Assembly  was  suspended 
by  Act  of  Parliament  until  the  Mutiny  Act  should 
be  complied  with.  That  was  regarded  by  the  friends 
of  America  in  England  as  a  mild  and  conciliatory 
measure,  and  it  was  not  without  effect.  It  was  upon 
the  larger  question  of  commercial    regulation,  and 


298  William  Pitt.  [1766- 

the  levying  of  external  duties  which  was  its  basis, 
that  more  dangerous  collision  was  threatened.  At- 
tempts to  enforce  the  revenue  acts  were  resisted  with 
violence ;  the  distinction  between  internal  and  exter- 
nal taxation  so  strenuously  insisted  upon  when  an 
internal  tax  was  in  question  soon  disappeared  ;  the 
cry  of  "  no  representation,  no  taxation  "  was  enlarged 
into  "no  representation,  no  legislation,"  and  Dickin- 
son in  the  Farmer  s  Letters  argued,  with  perfect 
logic,  though  with  a  rather  rapid  forgetfulness  of  that 
acknowledgment  of  Parliament's  legislative  suprem- 
acy which  had  accompanied  the  protest  against  the 
Stamp  Act,  that  ""  an  Act  of  Parliament  commanding 
to  do  a  certain  thing,  if  it  has  any  validity,  is  a  tax 
upon  us  for  the  expense  that  accrues  in  complying 
with  it."  How  great  an  effect  upon  English  opinion 
was  created  by  the  advance  in  American  pretensions 
is  clear  from  what  Chatham,  of  all  men  the  most  in- 
clined to  defend  and  admire  the  colonists,  wrote  to 
Lord  Shelburne  on  hearing  of  resistance  to  the 
Mutiny  Act  and  of  the  objections  taken  to  the  com- 
mercial regulations. 

"  America  affords  a  gloomy  prospect.  A  spirit  of  infat- 
uation has  taken  possession  of  New  York  :  their  dis- 
obedience to  the  Mutiny  Act  will  justly  make  a  great 
ferment  here,  open  a  fair  field  to  the  arraigners  here, 
and  leave  no  room  to  any  to  say  a  word  in  their  defence. 
I  foresee  confusion  will  ensue.  The  petition  of  the  mer- 
chants of  New  York  is  highly  improper  :  in  point  of  time 
most  absurd  ;  in  the  extent  of  their  pretensions,  most 
excessive  ;  and  in  the  reasoning  most  grossly  fallacious 
and  offensive.      .      .      .     They  are  doing  the  work  of 


1769]  The  Chatham  Ministry.  299 

their  worst  enemies  themselves.  The  torrent  of  indig- 
nation in  Parliament  will,  I  apprehend,  become  irresist- 
ible, and  they  will  draw  upon  their  heads  national 
resentment  by  their  ingratitude,  and  ruin,  I  fear  upon 
the  whole  state,  by  the  consequence."  * 

Again,  four  days  later,  he  wrote:  "It  is  a  literal 
truth  to  say  that  the  Stamp  Act,  of  most  unhappy 
memory,  has  frightened  these  irritable  and  umbra- 
geous people  quite  out  of  their  senses."  f  He  ad- 
vised that  the  New  York  petition  should  be  laid 
before  the  House,  and  not  be  smothered  in  the 
hands  of  the  King's  servants. 

It  is  clear,  if  Chatham  blamed  American  infatua- 
tion, how  incensed  and  outraged  must  have  been  that 
large  number  of  politicians  who  had  never  sympa- 
thised with  the  colonists.  Townshend  perceived 
this,  and  determined  to  raise  a  revenue  by  duties  on 
articles  imported  into  the  colonies,  which  duties  were 
to  be  collected  at  the  American  ports.  The  articles 
selected  were  paper,  tea,  glass,  lead,  and  painters' 
colours,  and  it  was  estimated  the  new  duties  would 
produce  forty  thousand  pounds  a  year,  which  would 
enable  the  Crown  to  pay  the  salaries  of  Governors 
and  Judgefe,  and  so  render  those  officers  independent 
of  the  Assemblies.  A  Board  of  Commissioners  was 
appointed  by  the  Crown  to  superintend  the  trade 
laws,  and  the  writs  of  assistance  were  formally  legal- 
ised. At  the  same  time  Townshend,  following 
Grenville,  freed  tea,  coffee,  and  cocoa,  which  were 
sent  to  America  via  England,  from  the  import  duty 

*  Chatham  Corr.,  iii.,  i88,  189.  f  Ibid,^  iii.,  193. 


300  William  Pitt.  [1766- 

into  England,  with  the  result  that  the  colonists  act- 
ually bought  these  articles  more  cheaply  than  Eng- 
lishmen. There  was  a  superficial  cleverness  in 
seizing  upon  the  difference  between  external  and 
internal  taxation,  but  the  policy  combined  the  most 
irritating  and  provocative  qualities  with  an  almost 
ludicrous  want  of  financial  ingenuity.  If  the  duties 
had  been  levied  at  the  English  port  of  embarkation, 
they  would  probably  have  been  paid  without  demur. 
Political  unwisdom  never  risked  greater  disasters  for 
so  small  a  benefit,  or  hazarded  a  nobler  empire  for 
so  penurious  a  revenue. 

Townshend  carried  his  budget  in  May,  two  months 
after  Chatham's  breakdown.  During  these  months 
both  Shelburne  and  Grafton,  though  they  differed 
from  one  another,  earnestly  sought  the  aid  and  advice 
of  their  absent  chief.  To  their  entreaties,  George  III. 
added  his  own,  yet  all  were  in  vain.  Chatham  sent 
his  proxy  to  Grafton  for  use  in  the  Lords, ^  but  re- 
peated that  he  could  see  no  one  on  business.  On 
May  30th,  the  King  was  so  alarmed  by  small  major- 
ities of  six  and  three  on  previous  days  in  the  House 
of  Lords,  that  he  wrote  to  Chatham,  almost  implor- 
ing him  to  see  Grafton. 

"  Your  duty  and  affection  for  my  person,  your  own 
honour,  call  on  you  to  make  an  effort :  five  minutes'  con- 
versation with  you  would  raise  his  spirits,  for  his  heart 
is  good  ;  mine,  I  thank  Heaven,  wants  no  rousing  :  my 
love  to  my  country,  as  well  as  what  I  owe  to  my  own 
character  and  to  my  family,  prompt  me  not  to  yield  to 
faction."  f 
*  Anson's  Grafton,  p.  133.  f  Chatham  Corr.,  iii.,  261. 


17691  The  Chatham  Ministry.  301 

To  this,  Chatham  replied  :  "'  Penetrated  and  over- 
whelmed with  your  Majesty's  letter  and  the  bound- 
less extent  of  your  royal  goodness,  totally  incapable 
as  illness  renders  me,  I  obey  your  Majesty's  com- 
mands, and  shall  beg  to  see  the  Duke  of  Grafton 
to-morrow."  The  following  day,  Grafton  went  out 
to  Hampstead,  and  his  memoirs  contain  his  account 
of  the  interview. 

'*  Though  I  expected  to  find  Lord  Chatham  very  ill 
indeed,  his  situation  was  different  from  what  I  had  im- 
agined ;  his  nerves  and  spirits  were  affected  to  a  dread- 
ful degree  ;  and  the  sight  of  his  great  mind  bowed 
down,  and  thus  weakened  by  disorder,  would  have  filled 
me  with  grief  and  concern,  even  if  I  had  not  borne  a 
sincere  attachment  to  his  person  and  character.  The 
confidence  he  reposed  in  me,  demanded  every  return 
on  my  part  ;  and  it  appeared  like  cruelty  in  me  to  have 
been  urged  by  any  necessity  to  put  a  man  I  valued  to  so 
great  suffering  as  it  was  evident  that  my  commission  ex- 
acted. The  interview  was  truly  painful  :  I  had  to  run 
over  the  many  difficulties  of  the  Session  :  for  his  lord- 
ship, I  believe,  had  not  once  attended  the  House,  since 
his  last  return  from  Bath.  I  had  to  relate  the  struggles 
we  had  experienced  .  .  .  the  opposition  also  which  we 
had  encountered  in  the  East,  India  business  from  Mr. 
Conway,  as  well  as  Mr.  Townshend  ;  together  with  the 
unaccountable  conduct  of  this  latter  gentleman,  who  had 
suffered  himself  to  be  led  to  pledge  himself  at  last,  con- 
trary to  the  known  decision  of  every  member  of  the 
Cabinet,  to  draw  a  certain  revenue  from  the  Colonies 
without  offence  to  the  Americans  themselves  :  and  I 
was  sorry  to  inform  Lord  Chatham  that  Mr.  Towns- 
hend's  flippant  boasting  was  received  with  strong  marks 


302  William  Pitt,  [1766-1769] 

of  a  blind  and  greedy  approbation  from  the  body  of  the 
House." 

Chatham  entreated  Grafton  himself  to  remain,  as- 
sured him  that  Shelburne  was  loyal,  which  both 
George  III.  and  Grafton  doubted,  and  advised  him 
if  a  junction  with  the  Bedfords  or  Rockinghams  be- 
came necessary,  to  negotiate  with  the  former.*  This 
preference  for  the  Bedfords,  who  were  passionate  in 
their  hostiHty  to  the  Americans,  is  one  of  the 
strangest  features  in  Chatham's  opinions  and  career. 

This  was  his  last  official  intervention  in  politics  ; 
he  did  not  see  Grafton  again  for  two  years,  he  had 
no  part  or  lot  in  the  administration,  and  only  re- 
tained office  because  the  King  told  him  his  name 
kept  the  Ministry  together.  The  mysterious 
malady  grew  worse ;  he  would  remain  all  day 
seated  at  a  table  with  his  head  bowed  and  his  face 
covered  ;  the  slightest  noise  racked  his  nerves,  and 
the  very  mention  of  politics  so  agitated  him  that  his 
whole  body  trembled.  Nearly  forty  years  later, 
when  he  could  look  back  over  those  momentous 
events  that  sprang  from  the  acts  of  this  year,  Graf- 
ton, who  knew  ministerial  politics  at  this  time 
better  than  any  other  man,  wrote  :  "  I  shall  ever 
consider  Lord  Chatham's  illness,  together  with  his 
resignation,  as  the  most  unhappy  event  that  could 
have  befallen  our  political  state.  ...  I  must  think 
that  the  separation  from  America  might  have  been 
avoided."  f 

*  Anson's  Grafton,  pp.  136-138.  \  Ibid.,  225. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  OPPOSITION  TO  PREROGATIVE. 
I 770-1772. 

CHATHAM  remained  withdrawn  from  public 
life  for  more  than  two  years.  In  January, 
1768,  he  desired  to  resign  his  office,  but  the 
King  wrote  to  him  :  ''  I  am  thoroughly  convinced 
of  the  utility  you  are  of  to  my  service ;  for  though 
confined  to  your  house,  your  name  has  been 
sufficient  to  enable  my  administration  to  proceed. 
I  therefore  in  the  most  earnest  manner,  call  on  you 
to  continue  in  your  employment."*  The  Privy 
Seal  was  put  into  commission  for  nine  weeks,  but  it 
was  not  until  October  14,  1768,  that  Chatham's 
resignation  was  accepted.  The  King,  Grafton,  and 
Camden  entreated  him  to  remain,  and  George  HI. 
wrote,  "As  you  entered  upon  employment  in 
August,  1766,  at  my  own  requisition,  I  think  I  have 
a  right  to  insist  on  your  remaining  in  my  service; 
for  I  with  pleasure  look  forward  to  the  time  of  your 
recovery,  when  I  may  have  your  assistance  in  re- 
sisting the  torrent  of  Factions  this  country  so  much 

*  Chatham  Correspondence,  iii.,  318. 
303 


304  William  Pitt,  [1770- 

labours  under."  "^  Even  this  failed  to  move  the 
Minister,  who  never  again  took  arms  for  the  King 
against  the  '*  torrent  of  Factions."  The  dismissal  of 
Lord  Shelburne,  and  the  removal  of  Sir  Jeffrey  Am- 
herst from  the  Governorship  of  Virginia,  were  men- 
tioned by  Chatham  to  Grafton  as  matters  he 
disapproved,  and  the  paramount  power  which  the 
Bedford  connection  had  by  this  date  secured  in  the 
administration  cannot  have  been  a  pleasing  object 
of  contemplation.  During  the  spring  of  1769  his 
powers  returned  to  him,  the  cloud  of  gloom  that  had 
so  long  depressed  his  mind  was  dissipated,  and  he 
signalised  his  return  to  active  life  by  a  visit  to  St. 
James's,  which  created  many  surmises  and  con- 
jectures, and  no  inconsiderable  alarm,  among  the 
political  classes.  It  was  a  different  world  from  that 
which  he  had  left,  and  the  various  connections,  con- 
scious that  Chatham's  personality,  a  force  of  known 
power  though  of  uncertain  tendency,  must  affect 
the  equilibrium  of  parties,  waited  with  some  anxiety 
for  a  declaration  of  his  purpose.  Immediately  after 
resigning  the  Privy  Seal  he  had  been  reconciled  with 
Lord  Temple,  who  at  this  moment  was  delighting  in 
the  unusual  opportunities  of  intrigue,  patriotism, 
and  agitation  afforded  by  the  struggle  between 
Wilkes  and  the  House  of  Commons.  Temple,  as  he 
once  candidly  stated,  loved  faction  and  had  money 
to  spare ;  he  was  a  great  master  in  the  art  of  creat- 
ing a  boisterous  public  opinion,  and  though  he  did 
not  direct  the  whirlwind,  he  rode  triumphantly  in 
its  midst.     He  rejoiced  that  the  animating  eloquence 

*  Chatham  Correspondence,  iii.,  343. 


1772]        The  Opposition  to  Prerogative,         305 

of  Chatham  might  again  be  heard  in  ParHament,  and 
might  yet  further  increase  the  popular  excitement. 
Grafton  was  still  head  of  a  Government  whose 
measures  he  almost  invariably  disapproved,  whose 
members  were  uncongenial ;  his  intellect  was  too 
keen  to  ignore  mistakes,  but  his  will  was  too  weak 
to  coerce  a  colleague,  his  nature  too  indolent  to 
frame  a  policy.  From  a  desire  to  oblige  the  King, 
he  retained  office,  and  justified  his  ministerial  ex- 
istence to  himself  and  to  his  son  on  the  ground  that 
he  was  marking  time  until  Chatham  should  return. 
The  complexion  of  the  Ministry  was  changed,  and 
only  Grafton,  Granby,  and  Camden  remained  as  the 
representatives  of  Lord  Chatham's  friends  ;  Charles 
Townshend  was  dead,  and  Lord  North  ruled  the 
Treasury  in  his  stead,  Northington  and  Conway  had 
resigned,  though  the  latter  remained  in  the  Cabinet 
without  office  until  January,  1770.  Shelburne  had 
been  in  effect  dismissed.  There  was  a  moment  in 
1767  when  a  general  combination  of  parties  seemed 
possible,  when  Bedford  and  Rockingham  met  to  de- 
cide upon  a  division  of  offices  that  might  conciliate 
all  sections ;  but  the  two  chiefs  split  upon  the  ques- 
tion of  who  should  lead  the  Commons,  Rockingham 
declaring  for  Conway,  and  Bedford  announcing  that 
he  and  Mr.  Grenville  were  one.  In  those  negotia- 
tions it  is  worthy  of  remark  that  Rockingham  "  was 
more  against  Lord  Chatham  than  against  any 
other.""*  At  the  close  of  1767,  places  were  found 
for  Gower,  Weymouth,  who  became  Secretary  of 
State,   and   Sandwich,  so  that  a  compact  body  of 

*  Grenville  Papers^  iv.,  66. 


3o6  William  Pitt.  [1770- 

the  Bedfords  obtained  an  entrance  into  the  Govern- 
ment, while  a  newly  created  Secretaryship  for  Amer- 
ica was  given  to  Lord  Hillsborough.  Shelburne  was 
wholly  at  variance  with  these  new  colleagues  on 
grounds  of  policy,  as  with  Grafton  on  personal 
grounds ;  he  was  goaded  into  resignation  in  Octo- 
ber, 1768,  and  was  succeeded  by  Lord  Rochford. 
The  Ministry  as  then  constituted  was  not  out  of 
sympathy  with  the  obstinate  assertion  of  prerog- 
ative, the  manipulation  of  constitutional  forms  into 
instruments  of  the  royal  will,  which  was  the  absorb- 
ing passion  of  George  IIL  at  this  time.  The  King 
was  still*' the  most  efficient  man  among  them,"  as 
Mansfield  had  declared  him  to  be  in  1767,  and  the 
clue  to  the  confused  struggle  between  the  Commons 
and  the  people,  as  well  as  to  events  connected  with 
America,  is  to  be  found  in  the  stubborn  determina- 
tion of  the  sovereign.  Mansfield  in  these  years  was 
the  confidential  adviser  of  the  throne ;  his  luminous 
mind  evolved  arguments  on  behalf  of  many  bad 
causes  ;  he  was  in  fact  the  only  politician  of  great  in- 
tellect who  could  be  found  to  oppose  the  cause  of 
Chatham  and  Burke,  and  was  treasured  accordingly. 
Talking  to  Lyttleton  at  the  end  of  1767,  he  said  that 
**  unless  that  madmmi  Chatham  should  come  and 
throw  a  fire-ball  in  the  midst  of  them,  he  thought 
Ministers  would  stand  their  ground."  It  is  not  dif- 
ficult to  imagine  with  what  feelings  he  received  the 
news  of  Chatham's  recovery  in  1769.  The  senti- 
ments of  the  Rockingham  Whigs  are  shown  by  the 
famous  sarcasm  of  Burke:  "  If  he  has  not  been  sent 
for  (to  the  lev^e),  Chatham  went  only  humbly  to  lay 


Copyright  Sir  Benjamin  Stone 

STATUE  OF  LORD  MANSFIELD,  ST.  STEPHEN'S  HALL,  WESTMINSTER. 

BY  E.   H.  BAILEY,  R.A. 


K. 


1772]        The  Opposition  to  Prerogative.        307 

a  reprimand  at  the  feet  of  his  most  gracious  master, 
and  to  talk  some  significant  pompous  creeping  ex- 
planatory matter  in  the  true  Chathamic  style,  and 
that 's  all."  *  In  his  interview,  which  was  the  last 
that  took  place  between  Chatham  and  himself,  the 
King  was  very  gracious,  but  Chatham  took  occasion 
to  declare  his  dissent  from  some  proceedings  of  the 
Ministry,  especially  in  regard  to  Wilkes  and  to  the 
East  India  Company. 

"  His  lordship  added  that  he  doubted  whether  his 
health  would  ever  again  allow  him  to  attend  Parliament, 
but  if  it  did,  and  if  he  should  give  his  dissent  to  any 
measure,  that  His  Majesty  would  be  indulgent  enough  to 
believe  that  it  would  not  arise  from  any  personal  consid- 
eration, for  he  protested  to  His  Majesty,  as  Lord  Chat- 
ham he  had  not  a  tittle  to  find  fault  with  in  the  conduct 
of  any  one  individual  ;  and  that  His  Majesty  might  be 
assured  that  it  could  not  arise  from  ambition,  as  he  felt 
so  strongly  the  weak  state  from  which  he  was  recovering, 
and  which  might  daily  threaten  him,  that  office  there- 
fore of  any  sort  could  no  longer  be  desirable  to  him." 

Happy  would  it  have  been  if  the  King  had  re- 
membered this  conversation,  and  had  believed  that 
the  words  of  warning  which  fell  from  Chatham's  lips 
were  more  worthy  of  attention  because  they  came 
from  a  man  who  had  already  won  the  highest  dis- 
tinction the  State  could  offer,  and  was  forbidden  by 
age  and  infirmity  to  think  again  of  office  or  reward. 
These  last  years  of  Chatham's  life  were  full  of  stren- 
uous resistance,  of  a  passionate  and  splendid  oratory 

''^Rockingham  Memoirs^  ii.,  140. 


3o8  William  Pitt.  [1770- 

that  was  exerted  in  vain,  of  an  opposition  unavailing 
indeed  for  its  immediate  ends  but  so  true  in  its  aims 
and  methods  to  the  deepest  truths  of  politics,  so 
noble  in  its  display  of  energy  and  power,  so  pathetic 
in  its  closing  scene,  that  it  must  be  ever  remembered 
as  an  achievement  illustrating  the  history  of  Parlia- 
ment. But  this  resistance  was  an  effort  that  George 
III.  could  not  forgive,  and  whatever  liking  he  pos- 
sessed for  Chatham  passed  rapidly  into  suspicion 
and  dread,  until  before  a  decade  was  ended,  it  was 
transformed  into  a  sinister  hatred. 

Notwithstanding  Burke's  disparagement,  it  was 
with  the  Rockingham  party  that  Chatham  now  en- 
tered into  alliance,  an  alliance  that  was  never  very 
cordial,  although  it  continued,  in  form  at  least,  until 
the  eve  of  his  death.  The  Duke  of  Portland  wrote 
to  Rockingham  on  December  3,  1769,  an  account 
of  an  interview  some  politician  had  obtained  with 
Chatham,  which  details  a  very  characteristic  picture. 

"  He  found  him  just  recovered  from  an  attack  of  the 
gout,  but  high  in  spirits,  and  in  fury.  He,  Lord  Chat- 
ham, said  that  he  was  domestically  happy,  but  that  public 
affairs  were  too  blank  to  give  anybody  comfort ;  that 
the  conduct  of  some  persons  in  Administration  had  sur- 
prised him  ;  that  he  knows  not  what  infatuation  has 
produced  such  a  situation  of  affairs.  He  says  that  he 
united  body  and  soul  with  Lord  Rockingham  and  Sir 
George  Savile  in  their  measures  (meaning,  I  suppose,  the 
Middlesex  election)  ;  that  he  thinks  Sir  George  the  most 
virtuous  character  in  this  country,  and  bows  to  his  con- 
stitutional and  private  integrity  ;  that  he  will  go  hand  in 
hand  with  Lord  Rockingham  and  his  friends,  who  are, 


1772]        The  Opposition  to  Prerogative,        309 

and  have  proved  themselves  to  be,  the  only  true  Whigs 
in  this  country.  ''Former  little  differences  must  be  for- 
gotten when  the  contest  is  pro  aris  et  focis.  The  prepara- 
tions of  France  and  Spain  are  truly  alarming.  But,  Sir,  if 
they  were  to  land  on  the  coast  of  Sussex  to-morrow,  we 
will  not  stir  a  step  to  oppose  them,  till  this  deep  wound 
in  our  constitution  is  healed.  Sir,  I  had  rather  be  a 
slave  to  France  than  to  a  fellow  subject.'  '  Then,  my 
Lord,'  said  the  visitor,  '  I  suppose  you  think  the  Parlia- 
ment may  probably  be  dissolved  ? '  *  May,  sir  ?  It  must, 
it  shall  be  dissolved.'  "  * 

It  was  as  a  struggle /r*?  aris  et  focis  that  Chatham 
entered  into  Opposition ;  he  regarded  any  attenapt 
to  supersede  constitutional  liberty  with  fiery  and 
passionate  indignation,  and  his  utterances  against 
such  a  policy,  extrenae  though  they  were,  never 
went  further  than  the  action  he  was  prepared,  if 
necessary,  to  take.  His  strenuous  eloquence  and 
unconventional  proposals  often  alarmed  and  discon- 
certed Rockingham,  whose  mind  was  of  correct  and 
moderate  tone.  The  archetypal  Whig  shuddered  at 
any  hint  of  revolution,  whereas  Chatham  would 
have  mounted  a  barricade.  To  apply  the  phrase  of 
Heine,  Rockingham  loved  liberty  as  his  wedded 
wife,  to  whom  he  owed  a  decorous  conjugal  respect, 
but  to  Chatham  liberty  was  a  mistress,  the  dedicated 
object  of  an  ardent  passion.  This  difference  of  tem- 
perament was  at  the  bottom  of  many  disagreements, 
and  each  leader  showed  the  defects  of  his  qualities 
at  various  times.  Chatham  was  sullen  under  the 
moderation  of  Rockingham,  and   declared  that  he 

*^  Rockingham  Memoirs^  ii.,  143. 


3IO  William  Pitt. 


[1770- 


would  be  *'  a  scarecrow  of  violence  among  the  gentle 
warblers  of  the  grove."  No  phrase  could  more  ex- 
actly express  the  impression  which  he  produced 
upon  the  Whigs.  There  were  other  causes  of  inter- 
rupted harmony,  but,  notwithstanding  all  such  diffi- 
culties, the  aims  of  the  Rockinghams  and  of 
Chatham,  in  regard  to  both  America  and  domestic 
questions,  were  so  nearly  identical  that  the  aUiance 
was  never  formally  broken. 

In  this  connection  one  incident  which  brings  two 
great  names  into  conjunction  must  be  mentioned. 
Burke  published,  in  1770,  his  famous  pamphlet  on 
the  Present  Discontents,  which  was  a  glowing  eulogy 
on  the  Rockinghamites,  an  implied  censure  on  Chat- 
ham, and  an  explicit  condemnation  of  George  Gren- 
ville,  who  was  compared  to  the  Spirit  of  Envy.  At 
this  moment  Rockingham,  Chatham,  and  Grenville 
were  endeavouring  to  unite  themselves  in  Opposition, 
and  the  admirable  invective  of  Burke  was  unlikely 
to  promote  a  warm  friendship  between  Grenville 
and  Burke's  patron.  Chatham  wrote  to  Rockingham 
a  letter  of  remonstrance,  in  which  he  said  that  the 
pamphlet  had  done  much  hurt  to  the  cause.  In  an 
honest  Opposition  it  is  highly  fit  that  there  should  be 
a  variety  of  opinions,  but  ''  in  the  wide  and  exten- 
sive public,  the  whole  alone  can  save  the  whole 
against  the  desperate  designs  of  the  Court."  More 
than  twenty  years  later  Burke  saw  this  letter  again, 
and  endorsed  on  the  back  of  it  a  vitriolic  note.  "  I 
remember  to  have  seen  this  knavish  letter  at  the 
time.  The  pamphlet  is  itself,  by  anticipation,  an 
answer  to  that  grand  artificer  of  fraud.    He  would  not 


1772]        The  Opposition  to  Prerogative.        3 1 1 

like  it.  It  is  pleasant  to  hear  him  talk  of  the  great 
extensive  public,  who  never  conversed  but  with  a  par- 
cel of  toad-eaters.  Alas  !  alas  !  how  different  the  real 
from  the  ostensible  public  man  !  Must  all  this  the- 
atrical stuffing  and  raised  heels  be  necessary  for  the 
character  of  a  great  man  ?  "  Then  follows  the  char- 
acteristic reaction  against  so  violent  an  outbreak. 
"  Oh !  but  this  does  not  derogate  from  his  great, 
splendid  side,  God  forbid  !  "  *  Chatham's  failings 
were  peculiarly  irritating  to  Burke,  and  though  he 
was  conscious  of  the  other's  greatness  and  celebrated 
it  in  some  passages  of  noble  praise,  Burke's  influence 
undoubtedly  tended  to  prevent  a  complete  under- 
standing and  union  between  Chatham  and  Rock- 
ingham. 

Chatham  was  eager  for  the  fray  and  attended  in 
the  House  of  Lords  when  Parliament  met  in  Janu- 
ary, 1770.  The  great  question  of  the  hour  was  that 
of  the  Middlesex  election,  and  Chatham's  speeches 
produced  an  immediate  effect.  Camden  made  a 
dramatic  recantation  of  all  responsibility  for  what 
the  Ministry  had  done  in  regard  to  both  America 
and  the  Middlesex  election,  and  his  resignation  of 
the  seals  became  imperative.  Lord  Granby  joined 
in  this  protest,  and  also  resigned.  Thus  the  two 
most  popular  Ministers,  who  had  never  wavered  in 
their  allegiance  to  Chatham's  principles,  though 
their  conduct  towards  Chatham  himself  had  not 
been  so  plainly  loyal  as  that  of  Shelburne,  returned 
to  his  side  and  Grafton  was  left  in  solitude  among 
the   Bedfords.     After    some    attempts   to    fill    the 

*  Rockingham  Memoirs,  ii.,  193-195. 


312  William  Pitt.     .  [1770- 

vacant  places  he  himself  resigned,  Lord  North 
became  chief  Minister,  and  the  administration  as- 
sumed the  definitive  shape  which  it  retained  till 
Chatham's  death.  Of  all  the  administrations 
throughout  his  reign  this  was  most  clearly  ruled  by 
George  III.;  it  was  the  King's  friends  who  gave 
Lord  North  his  majority,  it  was  the  King's  will 
that  kept  Lord  North  faithful  to  a  policy  which 
in  secret  he  disliked  and  distrusted.  The  sovereign's 
narrow  mind,  the  Minister's  complaisance,  the  native 
insolence  of  Sandwich  and  Weymouth  stamped 
their  characteristics  upon  the  Government  which 
was  destined  to  confront  the  gravest  crisis  in  the 
history  of  the  British  Empire. 

Many  important  constitutional  questions  were 
agitated  at  this  time.  At  the  general  election  of 
1768,  Wilkes  had  returned  to  his  career  as  a  practi- 
cal politician,  and  had  been  elected  as  one  of  the 
members  for  Middlesex.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  on  his  flight  to  France  he  had  been  outlawed, 
and  this  outlawry  was  now  reversed  by  Mansfield  on 
a  technical  point.  Wilkes,  however,  had  been  con- 
demned for  sedition,  libel,  and  blasphemy,  and  on 
surrendering  to  receive  sentence  upon  this  charge 
he  was  ordered  to  pay  ;^iooo  and  to  be  imprisoned 
for  twenty-one  months.  He  was  more  than  ever  a 
popular  favourite,  and  his  imprisonment  produced 
many  riots  in  London,  notably  one  in  St.  George's 
Fields,  where  some  Scottish  soldiers  accidentally 
killed  an  innocent  man.  This  incident  created  much 
indignation  and  disorder,  the  greater  because  Scot- 
tish soldiers  were  implicated.     Weymouth,  the  Sec- 


1772]        The  Opposition  to  Prerogative.        313 

retary  of  State,  had  before  the  riot  written  to  the 
magistrates  urging  them  not  to  hesitate  about  em- 
ploying the  military,  and  Wilkes  secured  a  copy  of 
this  letter  which  he  published  with  a  characteristic 
preface  charging  Weymouth  with  having  planned 
and  determined  upon  the  massacre  of  St.  George's 
Fields.  George  III.,  at  the  beginning  of  the  new 
Parliament,  had  written  Lord  North  that  "  the  ex- 
pulsion of  Mr.  Wilkes  appears  to  be  highly  expedient 
and  must  be  effected,"  and  the  Minister  resolved  to 
take  advantage  of  this  publication  of  Weymouth's 
letter  and  make  it  a  ground  for  expulsion.  Wilkes 
was  summoned  to  the  bar  ;  he  admitted  and  gloried 
in  the  preface  to  Weymouth's  letter,  which  was  de- 
termined by  resolution  of  the  House  to  be  an  ''  in- 
solent libel."  The  House  then  assumed  the  functions 
of  a  judicial  court,  and  declared  that  Wilkes,  being 
guilty  of  libel  in  the  famous  No.  45,  of  blasphemy 
in  publishing  the  Essay  on  Woman,  and  of  libel 
against  Lord  Weymouth,  should  be  expelled  from 
the  House.  Technically  the  House  of  Commons 
were  infringing  no  principle  of  law  in  decreeing  the 
expulsion,  though  they  were  contravening  policy  and 
common-sense,  but  after  the  expulsion  Wilkes  was 
re-elected  for  Middlesex,  and  the  House  then  re- 
solved that,  having  been  expelled,  Wilkes  was  inca- 
pable of  being  returned  to  the  same  Parliament. 
This  imposed  a  positive  disqualification  on  Wilkes, 
and  disfranchisement  on  the  freeholders  of  Middle- 
sex, measures  involving  an  alteration  of  the  law 
which  could  only  legally  be  accomplished  by  Act  of 
Parliament,  not  by  a  resolution  of   either  House. 


314  William  Pitt.  [1770- 

Wilkes  was  again  re-elected  unanimously,  and  again 
his  incapacity  was  declared.  At  length  a  way  out 
of  the  difficulty  was  discovered  ;  Colonel  Luttrell 
opposed  Wilkes,  received  296  votes  to  1 143  given 
for  Wilkes,  and  was  solemnly  declared  by  the  Com- 
mons to  be  the  duly  elected  member  for  Middlesex. 
This  gross  breach  of  the  legal  rights  of  electors 
created  the  wildest  excitement  in  London  and 
throughout  the  country.  Immediately  after  Lut- 
trelFs  election  Parliament  was  adjourned,  but 
throughout  the  recess  the  popular  protest  gained 
strength,  and  when  Chatham  spoke  on  the  subject 
in  the  House  of  Lords  he  was  conscious  that  public 
opinion  supported  his  views. 

The  debate  in  the  Lords  was  a  brilliant  duel  be- 
tween Chatham  and  Mansfield,  and  there  is  no  other 
speech  of  Chatham's  which  displays  so  great  a  power 
of  close  and  subtle  reasoning.  His  first  speech  con- 
cluded with  an  amendment  to  the  address  by  which 
the  House  was  asked  to  take  into  serious  considera- 
tion the  causes  of  the  discontent  in  so  many  parts  of 
his  Majesty's  dominions,  and 

"  particularly  the  late  proceedings  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, touching  the  incapacity  of  John  Wilkes,  Esq.,  ex- 
pelled by  that  House,  to  be  elected  as  a  member  to  serve 
in  this  present  Parliament,  thereby  refusing,  by  a  resolu- 
tion of  one  branch  of  the  legislature  only,  to  the  subject 
his  common  right,  and  depriving  the  electors  of  Middle- 
sex of  their  free  choice  of  a  representative." 

Mansfield  opposed  the  amendment.  With  an  affect- 
ation of  mystery  that  was  a  constant  peculiarity  of 


1772]        The  Opposition  to  Prerogative.        315 

his  character,  he  declared  that  his  own  opinion 
whether  the  proceedings  of  the  Commons  were  legal 
or  not  "  should  be  locked  up  in  his  own  breast,  or 
should  die  with  him "  ;  but  he  argued  that  such 
House  of  Parliament  was  the  sole  judge  of  its  own 
privileges,  that  any  question  touching  the  seat  of  a 
member  in  the  Lower  House  could  only  be  determ- 
ined by  that  House,  that  there  could  be  no  appeal 
from  this  decision,  and  that  it  was  an  infringement 
of  the  Commons'  privileges  for  the  Lords  to  inquire 
into  proceedings  with  respect  to  members  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  "  Wherever  the  statute  law 
was  silent,  he  knew  not  where  to  look  for  the  law  of 
Parliament,  or  for  a  definition  of  the  privileges  of 
either  House,  except  in  the  proceedings  and  deci- 
sions of  each  House  respectively."  If  the  Commons 
have  erred,  there  is  no  remedy  except  a  new  Act  of 
Parliament.  Chatham  spoke  again  in  reply  to  Mans- 
field :  **  Nothing  less  than  the  genius  of  penetration 
could  have  discovered  any  obscurity  in  his  amend- 
ment. .  .  .  What  is  this  mysterious  power,  undefined 
by  law,  unknown  to  the  subject,  which  we  must  not 
approach  without  awe,  nor  speak  of  without  rever- 
ence, which  no  man  may  question,  and  to  which  all 
men  must  submit  ?  "  If  there  is  no  law  to  direct  the 
House  of  Commons  but  their  own  wisdom,  if  their 
decision  is  law,  we  have  but  exchanged  the  arbitrary 
power  of  a  King  for  the  arbitrary  power  of  a  House 
of  Commons. 

**  Tyranny  is  detestable  in  every  shape  ;  but  in  none  so 
formidable  as  when  it  is  assumed  and  exercised  by  a 
number  of  tyrants.     But  we  have  a  law  of  Parliament, 


3i6  William  Pitt.  [1770^ 

we  have  a  code  in  which  every  honest  man  may  find  it. 
We  have  a  Magna' Charta,  we  have  the  Statute  Book, 
and  the  Bill  of  Rights." 

The  decision  of  the  House  of  Commons  makes  the 
representative  the  constituent  body;  it  is  contrary 
to  Magna  Charta  because  it  deprives  the  elector  of 
his  freehold  vote  without  either  the  judgment  of  his 
peers  or  the  law  of  the  land.  This  argument  was 
enforced  by  a  famous  passage  of  eloquence,  in  which 
the  silken  barons  of  the  day  were  adjured  to  imitate 
the  iron  barons  of  Runnymede.* 

Chatham  afterwards  adopted  Mansfield's  advice 
and  brought  in  a  Bill,  reciting  those  resolutions 
passed  by  the  House  of  Commons  which  stated  the 
incapacity  of  Wilkes  and  the  return  of  Luttrell,  and 
declaring  *'  That  all  the  adjudications  contained  in 
the  above-mentioned  several  resolutions  are  arbitrary 
and  illegal,  and  the  same  are  and  shall  be  hereby  re- 
versed, annulled,  and  made  void  to  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses whatsoever."  f  The  Lords  rejected  the  second 
reading  by  eighty-nine  to  forty-three.  He  also  moved 
for  an  address  to  the  King  praying  for  an  immediate 
dissolution,  on  the  ground  that  the  people  had  lost 
their  confidence  in  the  House  of  Commons.  This  mo- 
tion had  been  the  object  of  correspondence  between 
Rockingham  and  himself,  and  Rockingham  expressed 
the  opinion  that  it  ''  was  not  particularly  called  for," 
and  that  his  friends  would  not  welcome  it.  Chatham 
replied  that  the  idea  of  moving  it  sprang  more  from 

*  Chatham  Correspondence,  iii.,  383,  n.     This   speech  is  one  of 
those  reported  by  Sir  Philip  Francis. 
f  Ibid.,  iii.,  449-451- 


1772]        The  Opposition  to  Prerogative,        317 

himself  than  from  the  suggestion  of  others.  "  I 
think  it  for  our  honour,  and  in  prudence  indispens- 
able, to  seek  every  occasion  to  let  the  people  see 
we  demand  dissolution,  and  the  Crown  know,  by 
perpetual  reiteration,  that  we  will  never  acquiesce 
without  it."  *  No  record  of  the  debate  has  been 
preserved,  but  the  motion  was  negatived  without  a 
division.  How  far  it  is  constitutional  to  move  for  a 
dissolution  in  the  Lords  is  a  question  that  might 
tempt  a  casuist,  but  the  motion  was  an  illustration 
of  Chatham's  favourite  theory  that  the  Lords  are  the 
hereditary  councillors  of  the  throne,  and  may  advise 
the  Crown  on  any  matter.  The  Crown,  it  is  at  least 
certain,  is  under  no  obligation  to  adopt  any  advice 
that  may  be  so  offered. 

In  the  many  debates  which  followed  on  this  sub- 
ject Chatham's  powers  of  invective  were  displayed 
with  a  touch  of  extravagance.  The  question  in  fact 
had  been  thoroughly  argued,  and  the  subsequent 
speeches  were  intended  to  arouse  popular  opinion, 
to  intimidate  Ministers  rather  than  to  convince  them. 
But  when  Grafton  had  resigned  there  was  no  promi- 
nent man  in  the  administration  whose  conscience 
was  easily  aroused,  who  could  be  accused  of  either 
scruple  or  timidity.  The  House  of  Lords  was  not 
awed  by  Chatham  as  the  Commons  had  been  awed 
by  Pitt,  although  this  struggle  brought  forth  some  of 
his  most  famous  utterances.  These  were  character- 
ised by  passion,  impetuosity,  and  utter  lack  of  cau- 
tion or  reserve,  and  at  times  it  must  be  confessed  by 
recklessness  of  statement  and  abuse.     "  If  the  breach 


*  Chatham  Corr.,  455-457.;  Rockingham  Memoirs,  ii.,  181-184. 


3i8  William  Pitt.  [1770- 

in  the  constitution  be  effectually  repaired,  the  people 
will  of  themselves  return  to  a  state  of  tranquillity  — 
if  not  —  may  discord  prevail  for  ever"  —  so  he  ex- 
claimed with  a  monarch's  voice.  **  Rather  than  the 
nation  should  surrender  their  birthright  to  a  despotic 
Minister,  I  hope,  my  Lords,  old  as  I  am,  I  shall  see 
the  question  brought  to  issue,  and  fairly  tried  be- 
tween the  people  and  Government."  On  another 
occasion  he  quoted  Lord  Somers  and  Chief  Justice 
Holt,  and  drew  their  characters  very  finely.  He 
called  them  honest  men,  who  knew  and  loved  the 
English  Constitution.  Then,  turning  to  Lord  Mans- 
field, he  said  with  a  sneer,  ''  I  vow  to  God  I  think 
the  noble  Lord  equals  them  both  in  abilities." 
Mansfield  in  fact  was  the  object  of  Chatham's  par- 
ticular attention,  and  a  story  is  told  by  Grattan  that 
illustrates  the  directness  of  Chatham's  personal  at- 
tacks, and  also  that  disregard  of  the  rules  of  order  in 
which  no  other  member  of  Parliament  ever  equalled 
him.  ''  Who,"  he  asked,  ''  are  the  evil  advisers  of 
his  Majesty?  I  would  say  to  them,  Is  it  you?  Is  it 
you?  Is  it  you  ?  (pointing  to  the  Ministers,  until 
he  came  near  Lord  Mansfield).  There  were  several 
Lords  around  him,  and  Lord  Chatham  said,  '*  My 
Lords,  please  to  take  your  seats."  When  they  had 
sat  down,  he  pointed  to  Lord  Mansfield,  and  said^ 
"  Is  it  you  ?  Methinks  Felix  trembles^ 

It  was  in  his  adoption  of  the  Bute  legend  that 
Chatham's  speeches  displayed  some  symptoms  of 
an  unbalanced  mind.  Recounting  the  failure  of  his, 
last  Ministry,  he  declared  that  he  had  been  duped, 
that    some   secret   influence  was  at  work   dividing^ 


1772]        The  Opposition  to  Prerogative.        319 

his  colleagues  one  from  the  other,  that  from  his 
Majesty  he  had  received  nothing  but  kindness,  but 
that  there  was  a  power  behind  the  throne  greater 
than  the  throne  itself.  "Who  has  not  heard 
of  the  Mazarinade  of  France?"  Mazarin  had 
still  governed  France  though  exiled  from  the 
French  Court,  and  Bute,  he  hinted,  was  still  exercis- 
ing his  baneful  and  malignant  influence,  still  pois- 
oning the  mind  of  Majesty.  This  extraordinary 
behef  was  held  by  many  others  besides  Chatham, 
but  in  the  innumerable  papers  relating  to  the  politics 
of  that  time  there  is  little  evidence  that  Bute's  influ- 
ence over  the  King  continued,  and  there  is  abundant 
evidence  that  the  sovereign  himself  was  the  fountain 
and  origin  of  much  that  was  attributed  to  Bute. 
The  admirers  of  the  George  III.  who  confronted 
Napoleon  would  willingly  accept  the  theory  that  the 
George  III.  who  lost  America  was  but  the  creature 
of  a  designing  Minister,  but  unhappily  no  grounds  for 
that  belief  can  be  discovered.  Chatham  believed 
that  Bute  sold  England  at  the  peace,  but  no  credible 
evidence  for  that  grave  charge  was  ever  given,  though 
Camden  continued  till  the  end  of  his  life  to  repeat 
it.  The  constant  intrigues  among  politicians  of  the 
eighteenth  century  naturally  induced  a  habit  of 
suspicion,  and  the  simplest  actions  were  examined 
as  if  they  were  subtle  and  tortuous  plots.  In  this 
respect  Chatham  was  the  man  of  his  age.  He  de- 
corated a  negotiation  for  office  with  the  pomp  of 
diplomacy,  and  conducted  a  conversation  with  the 
circumspection  of  an  intrigue.  This  trick  of  suspicion, 
which  is  usually  the  characteristic  of  small  minds, 


320  William  Pitt. 


tl770- 


was  the  feature  of  Chatham's  character  to  which  his 
acceptance  of  the  Bute  legend  must  be  ascribed. 

If  this  feature  of  Chatham's  character  cannot  be 
overlooked  by  any  biographer,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  in  his  case  it  was  compatible  with  the 
keenest  sagacity  in  the  sphere  of  practical  affairs. 
He  possessed  the  valuable  instinct  of  scenting  dif- 
ficulties ahead,  the  power  so  indispensable  to  poli- 
ticians of  judging  a  proposal  not  only  on  abstract 
merits,  but  in  the  light  of  the  effects  its  acceptance 
will  produce.  Like  Walpole,  he  had  refused  to  tax 
the  American  colonies.  When  Lord  George  Sack- 
ville  declined  to  charge  at  Minden,  George  II.  pressed 
for  his  expulsion  from  the  House  of  Commons,  but 
Pitt  pointed  out  that,  if  he  were  re-elected,  the  House 
would  be  placed  in  a  very  difificult  position,  and  de- 
clined to  adopt  the  King's  suggestion.  This  Grafton 
rightly  instanced  as  an  illustration  of  political  fore- 
sight. Chatham's  opinions  on  the  contest  between 
the  House  of  Commons  and  the  printers  are  a  further 
proof  of  his  possession  of  this  quality.  He  admitted 
that  the  House  was  within  its  rights  in  committing 
certain  printers  who  had  reported  its  proceedings,  but 
he  did  not  share  the  opinion  that  reporting  could  be 
to  the  detriment  of  the  Commons.  ''  Where  is  the 
injury,  if  the  members  act  upon  honest  principles? 
For  a  public  assembly  to  be  afraid  of  having  their 
deliberations  published  is  monstrous,  and  speaks  for 
itself."  But  when  in  the  subsequent  dispute  with 
the  City  the  Lord  Mayor  condemned  the  messenger 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  who  had  arrested  one  of 
the  printers   within   the   precincts   without   obtain- 


1772]        The  Opposition  to  Prerogative.        321 

ing  the  signature  of  a  magistrate  to  the  Speaker's 
warrant,  as  the  charter  provided  must  be  done  to 
make  an  arrest  in  the  City  legal,  Chatham's  view 
of  the  situation  was  an  essentially  practical  one.  He 
thought  the  Lord  Mayor  censurable  for  interference 
with  the  servant  of  the  House  of  Commons,  even 
though  he  were  defending  the  charter,  but  *'  to 
go  further  than  bruta  parliamentaria  fulmina^  noise 
without  effect,  would  be  neither  wise  nor  becoming." 
The  majority  of  the  House  thought  differently  from 
Chatham  and  they  committed  the  Lord  Mayor  to 
the  tower, though  they  carefully  refrained  from  attack- 
ing Wilkes,  who  was  the  true  instigator  of  the  city 
measures.  Ministers  had  in  fact,  as  Chatham  truly 
said,  "  brought  themselves  and  their  master  where 
ordinary  inability  never  arrives,  and  nothing  but  first- 
rate  geniuses  in  incapacity  can  reach  ;  I  mean,  a 
situation  wherein  there  is  nothing  they  can  do  which 
is  not  a  fault."  *  Fortunately  the  salutary  rule  that 
prisoners  committed  by  the  House  are  freed  when 
the  session  ends  rescued  the  House  from  their  di- 
lemma, and  the  Lord  Mayor  was  prevented  through 
his  release  from  becoming  an  even  more  dangerous 
martyr  than  Wilkes  himself.  The  Commons  went  so 
far  as  to  expunge  the  statement  of  their  messenger 
being  admitted  to  bail  by  the  Lord  Mayor  from  the 
record  of  the  City  Court.  This,  said  Chatham,  was 
the  act  of  a  mob  and  not  of  a  Parliament. 

Naturally  enough,  the  tyrannising  exercise  of  their 
power  by  the  Commons,  and  the  riotous  discontent 
and  confusion  it  produced  in  London  and  the  country 

''f- Chatham  Correspondence.^  iv.,  119. 


32  2  William  Pitt. 


[1770 


at  large,  turned  the  minds  of  men  to  various  political 
remedies  for  a  Parliamentary  constitution  that  ap- 
peared disgraced.  Chatham  eagerly  canvassed  most 
of  the  remedies  suggested.  The  House  of  Commons, 
he  said,  had  converted  government  into  a  scuffle 
with  a  single  individual;  they  had  become  both  odious 
and  contemptible. 

"  The  influence  of  the  Crown  is  become  so  enormous, 
that  some  stronger  bulwark  must  be  erected  for  the  de- 
fence of  the  constitution.  The  act  for  constituting 
septennial  Parliaments  must  be  repealed.  Formerly  the 
inconveniences  attending  short  Parliaments  had  great 
weight  with  me  ;  but  now  we  are  not  debating  upon  a 
question  of  inconvenience  :  our  all  is  at  stake  ;  our 
whole  constitution  is  giving  way  ;  and  therefore,  with 
the  most  deliberate  and  solemn  conviction,  I  declare 
myself  a  convert  to  triennial  Parliaments." 

This  was  an  important  declaration,  as  it  brought 
Chatham  more  closely  into  touch  with  the  demo- 
cratic wing  of  the  Opposition,  to  whose  organisation 
in  1769  as  the  supporters  of  the  Bill  of  Rights  Mr. 
Lecky  traces  the  origin  of  English  Radicalism.  It 
must,  however,  be  read  in  connection  with  the  plan 
for  Parliamentary  reform  which  Chatham  advocated, 
and  read  in  that  connection  the  great  difference  sep- 
arating him  from  the  democrats  is  clear.  They 
believed  in  what  was  then  called  personal  represent- 
ation, which  involved  sooner  or  later  universal 
suffrage,  but  Chatham  never  adopted  that  idea. 
"  Representation  is  not  of  person  but  of  property, 
and  in  this  light  there  is  scarcely  a  blade  of  grass 


17721        The  Opposition  to  Prerogative.        323 

which  is  not  represented."  *  "  The  share  of  the 
national  burdens,  which  any  part  of  the  kingdom 
bears,  is  the  only  rule  by  which  we  can  judge  of  the 
weight  that  it  ought  to  have  in  the  political  bal- 
ance." f  His  plan  was  to  add  to  the  county  repre- 
sentation by  giving  an  extra  member  to  each  county, 
in  order  that  the  great  popular  constituencies  might 
gain  at  the  expense  of  the  small  boroughs,  which  in 
1766  he  described  as  ''  the  rotten  part  of  our  consti- 
tution, that  cannot  continue  a  century.  If  it  does 
not  drop,  it  must  be  amputated."  In  his  speech  on 
January  22,  1770,  Chatham  entered  fully  into  this 
plan,  and  the  cautious  and  conservative  manner  in 
which  he  now  approached  the  problem  is  clearly  ex- 
emplified in  the  statement  that  the  rotten  boroughs 
must  be  considered  the  natural  infirmity  of  the  Con- 
stitution, which  must  be  borne  in  patience.  "The 
limb  is  mortified  but  the  amputation  might  be 
death."  He  could  not  cure  that  disorder,  but  he 
would  infuse  a  portion  of  new  health  into  the  Con- 
stitution ;  the  representation  of  the  counties  is  still 
preserved  pure  and  uncorrupted :  "  it  is  not  in  the 
little  dependent  boroughs,  it  is  in  the  great  cities 
and  counties  that  the  strength  and  vigour  of  the 
constitution  resides,  and  by  them  alone,  if  an  un- 
happy question  should  ever  arise,  will  the  constitu- 
tion be  honestly  and  firmly  defended."  :j:  By  way 
of  maintaining  the  terms  of  the  Union,  Chatham  pro- 
posed to  add  proportionately  to  the  county  repre- 
sentation of  Scotland,  although  the  county  franchise 

*  Letters  to  Henry  Flood ^  p.  IS* 

f  Chatham  Corr,,  iv.,  169.  %  Ibid.,  iii.,  406,  407. 


324  William  Pitt.  [1770- 

in  that  country  consisted  in  ''superiorities,"  which 
were  bought  and  sold  in  the  market,  and  were  en- 
joyed independently  of  property  or  residence.*  In 
England  the  county  franchise  was  the  forty-shillings 
freehold,  and  Chatham's  scheme  would  certainly 
have  infused  new  health,  but  it  was  by  no  means  a 
complete  remedy  for  the  disease,  as  at  the  close  of 
the  century  371  members  for  England  and  Wales 
out  of  513  were  returned  as  nominees,  and  the  addi- 
tion of  one  free  member  for  each  county  could  have 
produced  little  effect  upon  this  general  result.  The 
most  remarkable  defect  in  the  plan  was  its  failure  to 
grant  any  representation  for  the  great  modern  towns 
such  as  Manchester  or  Birmingham,  and  the  real 
value  of  the  scheme  consists  in  the  fact  that  it  was 
the  pioneer  attempt  to  touch  the  problem,  and  as- 
sisted to  educate  opinion.  Chatham  could  be  quoted 
as  one  who  believed  that  the  political  machinery  of 
the  Constitution  needed  alteration,  that  the  excel- 
lence of  administration  was  dependent  to  some  ex- 
tent upon  the  form  of  government,  and  in  this 
respect  he  was  nearer  to  the  doctrinaire  Liberalism 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  of  the  seventeenth, 
than  Edmund  Burke.  But  Chatham,  like  Burke, 
regarded  the  Constitution  as  it  emerged  from  the 
struggles  of  the  seventeenth  century  as  the  ideal 
system  of  government  ;  for  him,  too,  the  system  of 
balanced  powers,  of  checks  and  equipoises  and  ad- 
justments, was  an  object  of  reverence.  In  enlarging 
the  popular  representation  he  desired  to  restore  to 
the  people  their  control  over  the  House  of  Commons. 

*  May,  Constitutional  History ^  i.,  355. 


FROM  THE  PAINTING  BY  SIR  JOSHUA  REYNOLDS, 


1772]         The  Opposition  to  Prerogative.        325 

"  Whoever  understands  the  theory  of  the  English  con- 
stitution, and  will  compare  it  with  the  fact,  must  see  at 
once  how  widely  they  differ.  We  must  reconcile  them 
to  each  other,  if  we  wish  to  save  the  liberties  of  this 
country  ;  we  must  reduce  our  political  practice,  as 
nearly  as  possible,  to  our  principles.  The  constitution 
intended  that  there  should  be  a  permanent  relation 
between  the  constituent  and  representative  body  of  the 
people.  Will  any  man  affirm,  that,  as  the  House  of 
Commons  is  now  formed,  that  relation  is  in  any  degree 
preserved  ?  My  Lords,  it  is  not  preserved,  it  is 
destroyed." 

Burke  and  Chatham  were  at  one  in  their  desire 
for  administrative  reform,  and  in  their  belief  that  the 
end  of  government  is  the  good  of  the  people.  But 
Burke  held  that  *' our  representation  is  as  nearly 
perfect  as  the  necessary  imperfection  of  human 
affairs  and  of  human  creatures  will  suffer  it  to  be," 
and  his  disregard  for  the  mechanical  theory  of  re- 
presentation is  shown  in  his  famous  question,  War- 
wick has  members  —  is  it  more  opulent,  happy,  and 
free  than  Birmingham,  which  is  unrepresented  ?  The 
one  positive  reform  carried  in  this  period  was  George 
Grenville's  Election  Act,  which  transferred  from  the 
whole  House  to  a  specially  chosen  committee  the 
duty  of  deciding  disputed  elections,  and  this  was 
warmly  supported  by  both  Chatham  and  Burke. 

Another  question  on  which  they  were  agreed  was 
the  relief  of  Protestant  Dissenters  from  subscribing 
the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  in  order  to  secure  the  bene- 
fits of  the  Toleration  Act.  A  Bill  with  this  object 
passed  the  Commons  in  1772  but  was  rejected  by  the 


326  William  Pitt.  [1770- 

Lords.  Chatham  supported  it,  and,  in  1790,  Burke 
quoted  a  well-known  sentence  from  this  speech  ad- 
dressed to  the  episcopal  bench  :  "  The  dissenting 
ministers  are  represented  as  men  of  close  ambition : 
they  are  so,  my  Lords ;  and  their  ambition  is  to 
keep  close  to  the  College  of  Fishermen,  not  of  car- 
dinals, and  to  the  doctrine  of  inspired  apostles  not 
to  the  decrees  of  interested  and  aspiring  bishops: 
they  contend  for  a  spiritual  creed  and  spiritual  wor- 
ship ;  we  have  a  Calvinist  creed,  a  Popish  liturgy, 
and  an  Arminian  clergy."  Chatham,  added  Burke, 
was  always  regarded  as  the  protector  of  the  Dissent- 
ers. Unfortunately,  his  toleration  stopped  short, 
like  that  of  Milton,  when  it  was  a  question  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  religion,  and  he  was  strongly  op- 
posed to  the  establishment  of  that  religion  in  Can- 
ada. The  wisdom  of  that  establishment  has  been 
demonstrated  by  events,  but  it  was  fiercely  attacked 
at  the  time  both  by  the  Opposition  and  by  the 
American  colonists,  and  in  the  popular  comparison 
of  the  day,  George  III.  was  said  to  resemble  Charles 
I.  in  showing  a  dangerous  partiality  for  the  Roman 
religion.  The  action  of  the  Ministers  in  thus  recog- 
nising the  religious  behef  of  the  French  Canadians 
showed  a  wisdom  in  startling  contrast  to  their  ordi- 
nary conduct,  and  an  immediate  reward  was  reaped 
in  the  retention  of  Canada  when  the  British  colonies 
were  lost. 

English  foreign  policy  during  this  period  followed 
no  consistent  plan.  The  desertion  of  Frederick  left 
Great  Britain  without  an  ally  in  Europe,  and  not- 
withstanding her   dominant    position   in    1763,   her 


1772]        The  Opposition  to  Prerogative.        327 

influence  on  the  course  of  European  affairs  was  very 
slight.  Choiseul  and  Grimaldi  could  make  their 
preparations  against  England  without  fear  of  any- 
other  enemy.  Choiseul,  in  1768,  purchased  Corsica 
and  England  did  not  move,  although  the  incident 
created  the  indignation  always  aroused  among  Eng- 
lishmen by  the  increase  of  any  foreign  empire.  The 
idea  of  an  alliance  with  the  Corsican  patriots  had 
been  suggested  during  the  late  war,*  and  Chatham 
expressed  to  Boswell  very  high  opinions  of  PaoH, 
their  leader.  His  view  of  the  French  purchase  of 
Corsica  was  clearly  expressed. 

"  I  cannot  agree  that  nothing  less  than  an  immediate 
attack  upon  the  honour  and  interest  of  this  nation  can 
authorise  us  to  interfere  in  defence  of  weaker  states, 
and  in  stopping  the  enterprise  of  an  ambitious  neighbour. 
Whenever  that  narrow,  selfish  policy  has  prevailed  in 
our  councils,  we  have  constantly  experienced  the  fatal 
effects  of  it.  By  suffering  our  natural  enemies  to  op- 
press the  powers  less  able  than  we  are  to  make  a  resist- 
ance, we  have  permitted  them  to  increase  their  strength, 
we  have  lost  the  most  favourable  opportunities  of  op- 
posing them  with  success.  .  .  .  With  respect  to  Cor- 
sica, France  has  obtained  a  more  useful  and  important 
acquisition  in  one  pacific  campaign  than  in  any  of  her 
belligerent  campaigns  ;  at  least  while  I  had  the  honour 
of  administering  the  war  against  her." 


c 


Spain  endeavoured  in  1770  to  win  a  similar  ad- 
vantage over  the  Falkland  Islands  without  the  ex- 
pense   of   purchase,  by  expelling   a   small    English 

*  Chatham  Correspondence^  i.,  242. 


328  William  Pitt.  [1770- 

force  which  for  four  years  had  been  in  possession  of 
the  islands.  Chatham,  by  a  curious  coincidence, 
had  predicted  that  a  "blow  of  hostility  "  from  France 
and  Spain  would  fall  at  the  moment  he  was  speak- 
ing, in  May,  1770,  when  preparations  were  being 
made  by  Spain  for  the  expedition."^  News  of  the 
aggression  reached  London  in  October,  and  the 
Ministers  at  once  demanded  from  Spain  restitution 
of  the  islands.  Chatham  believed  that  it  was  the 
opening  incident  of  a  new  war,  and  he  was  justified 
in  so  believing,  as  war  was  only  averted  by  the  de- 
cline of  Choiseul's  influence  in  France.  "  My  Min- 
ister wishes  for  war,  but  I  do  not,"  wrote  Louis  to 
the  Spanish  King,  and  it  was  not  till  Choiseul  had 
fallen  that  the  Spanish  Court  disavowed  the  expedi- 
tion and  restored  the  English  settlement.  The 
question  was  debated  in  the  Lords  in  November, 
1770,  and  Chatham  delivered  one  of  his  greatest 
speeches. f  The  possibility  of  war  at  once  made  him 
the  centre  of  universal  attention,  and  elicited  his  full 
powers.  Nothing  is  more  characteristic  of  him,  it 
may  be  observed,  than  the  series  of  compliments  in 
this  speech  to  great  men  of  the  past,  to  Carteret,  who 
in  the  upper  department  of  government  had  not  his 
equal;  to  Oliver  Cromwell,  who  astonished  mankind 
by  his  intelligence,  "who  did  not  derive  his  informa- 
tion from  spies  in  the  Cabinet  of  every  prince  in 
Europe,  but  drew  it  from  the  cabinet  of  his  own 
sagacious  mind  "  ;  and  to  Lord  Anson,  "  to  whose 
wisdom,  experience,  and  care  the  nation  owes  the  glo- 

*  Thackeray's  Life  of  Chatham ^  ii.,  197. 
\  Chatham  Correspondence^  iv. ,  2. 


1772]        The  Opposition  to  Prerogative.        329 

rious  naval  victories  of  the  last  war."  Holding  the 
view  that  war  was  inevitable,  Chatham  charged  the 
Ministry  with  neglecting  the  navy,  and  laid  down 
the  principles  of  naval  defence  which  ought  to  gov- 
ern English  statesmen.  The  first  of  these  indispens- 
able objects  was  *^  such  a  sufficient  naval  force  at 
home,  that  even  the  united  fleets  of  France  and 
Spain  may  never  be  masters  of  the  channel  "  ;  the 
second  a  powerful  western  squadron,  to  protect  the 
colonies  and  commerce ;  the  third,  "  such  a  force  in 
the  Bay  of  Gibraltar  as  may  be  sufficient  to  cover 
that  garrison,  to  watch  the  motions  of  the  Spaniards 
and  to  keep  open  communication  with  Minorca." 
In  order  to  raise  men  for  the  navy  press-gangs  had 
been  at  work,  and  certain  of  the  city  authorities, 
among  them  Wilkes,  had  attempted  to  prevent  the 
pressing  of  men  within  the  city  limits.  This  action 
had  been  very  popular,  but  Chatham  believed  that 
pressing  was  necessary  and  was  founded  upon  unin- 
terrupted usage.  "  I  wholly  condemn  their  conduct, 
and  am  ready  to  support  any  motion  that  may  be 
made  for  bringing  those  aldermen  who  have  en- 
deavoured to  stop  the  execution  of  the  Admiralty 
warrants  to  the  bar  of  this  House.  .  .  .  My  opin- 
ion may  not  be  very  popular ;  neither  am  I  running 
the  race  of  popularity."  *  On  the  immediate  ques- 
tion of  the  islands  he  declared  that  war  was  inevit- 
able, though  he  desired  an  honourable  peace,  and  he 
concluded  with  words  of  warning  to  the  Ministers. 

"  They  are  now  balancing  between  a  war  which  they 
ought  to  have  foreseen,  but  for  which  they  have  made  no 
*  See  also  Chatham  Correspondence ^  iii.,  480,  485, 


330  William  Pitt,  [1770- 

provision,  and  an  ignominious  compromise.  Let  me 
warn  them  of  their  danger.  ^  If  they  are  forced  into  a 
war,  they  stand  it  at  the  hazard  of  their  heads.  If,  by 
an  ignominious  compromise,  they  should  stain  the  hon- 
our of  the  Crown,  or  sacrifice  the  rights  of  the  people, 
let  them  look  to  their  consciences,  and  consider  whether 
they  will  be  able  to  walk  the  streets  in  safety." 

The  compliance  of  Spain  rescued  Ministers  from 
their  dilemma,  and  they  gained  the  credit  of  having 
secured  their  object  by  peaceable  means.  Dr.  John- 
son in  his  pamphlet  on  the  question  powerfully  at- 
tacked Chatham,  and  made  what  was,  from  his  point 
of  view,  a  singularly  apt  quotation  from  Corneille. 
The  facts,  argued  this  stout  enemy  of  all  enemies  of 
the  King,  were  "a  sufficient  answer  to  the  feudal 
gabble  of  a  man  who  is  every  day  lessening  that 
splendour  of  character  which  once  illuminated  the 
kingdom,  then  dazzled,  and  afterwards  inflamed  it ; 
and  for  whom  it  will  be  happy  if  the  nation  shall  at 
last  dismiss  him  to  nameless  obscurity,  with  that 
equipoise  of  blame  and  praise  which  Corneille  allows 
to  Richelieu,  a  man  who,  I  think,  had  much  of  his 
merit,  and  many  of  his  faults. 

"Chacun  parle  a  son  gre  de  ce  grand  cardinal, 
Mais  pour  moi  je  n'en  dirai  rien  ; 
II  m'a  fait  trop  de  bien  pour  en  dire  du  mal, 
II  m'a  fait  trop  de  mal  pour  en  dire  du  bien." 

In  the  latter  years  of  his  life  Chatham's  health 
was  so  variable  that  he  rarely  spoke  with  animation 
unless  roused  by  the  excitement  of  reply.  A  curious 
picture  of  the  great  orator  is  given  in  the  following 
account  of  a  visit  to  the  House  of  Lords.  Joseph 
Cradock  wrote : 


1772]        The  Opposition  to  Prerogative.         331 

"  Lord  Carlisle  made  room  for  me  between  himself  and 
another  nobleman.  That  nobleman  got  up  to  speak, 
and  then  I  perceived  that  it  was  the  great  Lord  Chatham. 
He  spoke  only  for  a  short  time,  was  confused,  and 
seemed  greatly  disconcerted  ;  and  then,  suddenly  turn- 
ing to  me  he  asked  whether  I  had  ever  heard  him  speak 
before.  *  Not  in  this  House,  my  Lord '  was  my  reply. 
'  In  no  House,  Sir,'  says  he,  '  I  hope,  have  I  ever  so  dis- 
graced myself.  I  feel  ill,  and  I  have  been  alarmed  and 
annoyed  this  morning  before  I  arrived.  I  scarce  know 
what  I  have  been  talking  about.'  After  an  interval 
Chatham  spoke  again.  He  suddenly  arose,  and  poured 
forth  a  torrent  of  eloquence  that  utterly  astonished. 
The  change  was  inconceivable  ;  the  fire  had  been  kin- 
dled, and  we  were  all  electrified  with  his  energy  and 
eloquence.  •  At  length  he  seemed  quite  exhausted,  and, 
as  he  sat  down,  with  great  frankness,  shook  me  by  the 
hand  and  seemed  personally  to  recollect  me,  and  I  then 
ventured  to  say,  *  I  hope  your  Lordship  is  satisfied.' 
*  Yes,  Sir,'  he  replied  with  a  smile,  *  I  think  I  have  now 
redeemed  my  credit.'  "  * 

"^  Memoirs  of  Joseph  Cradock.      Quoted  by  Trevelyan,  American 
Revolution^  i.,  182. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  ATTEMPT  TO   SAVE  THE   EMPIRE. 

I772-I778. 

IT  remains  for  us  to  consider  Chatham's  later  Amer- 
ican policy.  Nothing  is  more  remarkable  than 
the  apathy  which  prevailed  in  England  from  the 
date  of  Townshend's  budget  till  the  penal  measures 
of  1774.  The  world  of  politics  and  society  was  as 
blind  to  the  great  issue  as  that  more  brilliant  society 
in  Paris  which  discussed  atheism  and  the  fashions 
while  the  terrors  of  the  Revolution  were  preparing. 
As  Burke  said,  a  robbery  on  Hounslow  Heath  ex- 
cited more  notice  than  the  riots  in  America  which 
threatened  to  dissever  an  Empire.  The  King  real- 
ised that  a  great  contest  was  impending,  and  called 
up  his  inexhaustible  obstinacy  for  the  struggle ;  the 
commercial  classes  knew  that  their  prosperity  was 
threatened,  but  their  influence  in  Parliament  was 
perhaps  weaker  during  the  ascendancy  there  of  the 
"  King's  friends  "  than  at  any  period  since  the  Rev- 
olution ;  the  most  experienced  officers  of  the  army 
and  navy  dreaded  a  possible  war  more  than  the 
bellicose   orators  of   Westminster ;  but  among  the 

332 


17781     The  Attempt  to  Save  the  Empire.    333 

leading  politicians  only  Chatham,  Burke,  and  Shel- 
burne  can  be  said  to  have  realised  the  vital  gravity 
of  the  problem  which  North  wished  solvere  ambu- 
lando.  The  sentiments  of  Rockingham,  Richmond, 
and  the  Cavendishes  were  true  and  sound,  but  the 
unavailing  efforts  of  Burke  to  drag  them  from  their 
fox-hunting  and  racing  to  St.  Stephens  are  well 
known,  and  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the  Whigs 
would  have  persisted  in  their  masterly  inactivity  if 
they  had  seen  the  true  issue.  It  would  be  a  grave 
injustice  to  accuse  them  of  hunting  while  Rome 
burned.  Even  Chatham  from  1770  to  1774  seems 
to  have  paid  little  attention  to  what  was  occurring 
in  the  colonies,  and  during  these  years  there  is 
scarcely  a  mention  of  America  in  his  correspondence. 
This  ignorance  and  apathy  in  England  contrasts 
with  a  ferment  of  opinion  in  America,  where  men 
were  slowly  and  cautiously  considering  their  posi- 
tion, and  comparing  the  claims  of  old  association 
and  tradition  with  the  claims  of  the  new  order  and 
society  whose  birth  was  heralded.  It  was  a  question 
momentous  enough  for  each  individual,  whether  his 
allegiance  should  be  given  to  the  Empire  which 
seemed  to  have  reached  the  height  and  summit  of 
its  power,  or  to  the  new  State  whose  very  existence 
as  an  united  confederation  was  doubtful,  and  its 
greatness  a  matter  of  faith  in  the  future.  In  one  as- 
pect the  struggle  was  one  between  contending  polit- 
ical principles,  and  in  England  especially  it  was  a 
contest  between  ''  Revolution  principles  "  and  the 
system  of  oligarchic  government,  which  was  the  act- 
ual result  of  the  Revolution  of  1689.     But  the  Amer- 


334  William  Pitt.  wni- 

ican  Revolution  was  more  than  a  tragic  incident  in 
the  fight  between  parties  which  is  the  continuous 
occupation  of  the  British  race.  It  is  true  that  many 
Americans,  one  third  probably  of  the  colonists,  op- 
posed the  movement  for  separation,  and  that  many 
Englishmen  assisted  the  Americans  in  their  resist- 
ance, but  that  which  began  as  a  civil  war  within  the 
Empire  became  before  its  close  a  war  between  rival 
nations.  The  British  race  had  lost  its  centre  of  com- 
mon allegiance,  and  divided  itself  not  into  two  part- 
ies but  into  two  States.  That  was  an  even  greater 
result  of  the  struggle  than  the  triumph  of  self-gov- 
erning and  democratic  principles  which  the  new 
State  embodied.  The  American  Loyalists  were 
loyal  to  the  Imperial  connection,  but  they  separated 
themselves  from  their  fellow-colonists  not  because 
they  approved  the  measures  of  Grenville  and  Town- 
shend  and  North,  but  because  their  patriotic  devo- 
tion to  the  Empire  was  even  stronger  than  the  love 
they  felt  for  their  own  colonies.  In  the  American 
patriots  that  balance  of  sentiment  was  reversed.  In 
England  parties  were  divided  on  more  exclusively 
party  grounds ;  there  was  an  admixture  of  vulgar 
assertiveness  of  power  which  largely  influenced  the 
Bedford  section  of  the  Ministerial  party,  but  so  far 
as  men  were  divided  by  thoughtful  opinion  and  not 
by  mere  prejudice,  it  was  on  broad  questions  of  Im- 
perial policy.  Viewed  in  the  most  favourable  light, 
the  ideas  of  George  III.  were  that  on  grounds  of 
Imperial  expediency  the  colonies  could  not  be  trusted 
with  self-government ;  that  the  central  authority  of 
the  Empire  must  be  maintained  throughout  its  whole 


QEORQE  III. 

FROM  A  PAINTING  BY  ALLAN  RAMSAV  IN  THE  NATIONAL  PORTRAIT  GALLERY. 


1778]     The  Attempt  to  Save  the  Empire.    335 

extent ;  that  resistance  to  that  authority  must  be 
repressed  or  the  colonies  would  not  remain  in  that 
subordinate  position  to  the  mother  country  which 
was  their  true  place.  Distrust  of  colonial  self-gov- 
ernment, and  the  belief  that  colonies  existed  simply 
for  the  benefit  of  the  mother  country  were  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  old  colonial  system,  and  it  was  for 
the  old  colonial  system  that  George  III.  fought. 
That  system  was  not  his  invention,  but  the  head- 
long folly  of  his  attempt  to  retain  it  in  America  lay 
in  his  neglect  of  the  fact  that,  contrary  indeed  to  the 
theory  of  the  times,  the  Americans  had  enjoyed  for 
a  century  the  essential  advantages  of  self-government. 
What  was  theoretically  an  assertion  of  existing  law 
was  in  effect  an  extinction  of  privileges  that  had 
long  existed  ;  the  legality  of  Parliamentary  taxation 
might  be  defended,  its  inexpediency  was  flagrant 
because  the  colonies  had  taxed  themselves  through 
their  Assemblies  for  a  hundred  years.  Chatham  and 
Burke  in  their  resistance  to  George  III.  expressed  in 
immortal  words  many  ideas  on  which  the  free  colo- 
nial system  of  Great  Britain  is  founded  to-day. 
They  agreed  in  believing  that  colonial  self-govern- 
ment creates  content  and  loyalty,  and  they  shared 
the  great  conception  of  an  Empire  in  which  all 
members,  whether  Americans  or  British,  should 
enjoy  equal  rights ;  Burke,  and  not  Chatham,  was 
among  the  pioneers  of  greater  commercial  freedom, 
and  they  differed  again  when  the  struggle  had  ceased 
to  be  one  of  party  and  had  become  international. 

It  is  unnecessary  totelate  all  the  events  that  oc- 
curred between  Townshend's  budget  and  the  penal 


33^  William  Pitt.  ixjii- 

measures  against  Boston.  The  device  of  non-import- 
ation agreements  which  had  succeeded  against  the 
Stamp  Act  was  revived,  the  Assemblies  responded 
to  the  invitation  of  Massachusetts  and  protested 
against  the  new  duties,  the  Governors  repHed  by  a 
series  of  futile  dissolutions,  which  only  resulted  in 
the  return  of  new  Assemblies  that  were  even  more 
determined  than  those  dissolved.  The  Government 
policy  in  England  was  ofificially  declared  by  a  series 
of  eight  resolutions  introduced  by  Hillsborough  in 
the  Lords  and  passed  by  the  Commons  on  January 
26,  1769,  which  condemned  the  disloyalty  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  the  Boston  Convention,  and  approved 
of  sending  a  military  force  to  Boston.  Bedford  also 
carried  an  address  advising  the  use  of  an  Act  of 
Henry  VHI.  by  which  persons  accused  of  treason 
might  be  deported  to  England  for  trial  before  a 
special  commission.  This  last  violent  proposal  was 
nicely  calculated  to  increase  the  discontent  in  Amer- 
ica, and  convince  even  moderate  men  that  there  was 
a  tyrannical  design  to  be  feared  in  English  policy. 
The  Bedfords  were  in  fact  the  enemies  of  conciliatory 
proposals,  and  but  for  them  peace  might  have  been 
secured.  On  May  i,  1769,  the  Cabinet  met  and 
Grafton  moved  that  all  Townshend's  duties  should 
be  repealed,  but  it  was  carried  by  one  vote  that  the 
duty  on  tea  should  be  retained  in  order  to  preserve 
the  right  to  levy  such  duties.  ''  We  angrily  rejected 
the  bribe,"  says  a  recent  American  writer,  '*  all  the 
more  angrily,  perhaps,  because  we  half  suspected  the 
stability  of  our  own  virtue  in  rejecting  it."  *      None 

*  Tyler,  Literature  of  the  American  Revolution^  i.,  249. 


1778]     The  Attempt  to  Save  the  Empire,    337 

the  less  a  good  deal  of  tea  was  imported  and  paid 
duty.  Lord  North  obtained  the  sanction  of  the 
Commons  to  the  Cabinet  policy  on  March  5,  1770, 
when  the  Opposition  declared  in  favour  of  total  re- 
peal and  voted  142  to  204,  a  very  large  minority  for 
those  days.  Welbore  Ellis  and  Barrington,  two  of 
the  King's  friends,  declaring  that  the  Americans 
were  unworthy  of  even  the  smallest  indulgence,  de- 
clined to  support  even  partial  repeal.  There  had 
been  serious  disorders  in  Boston,  and  these  formed 
the  main  argument  of  the  anti-American  party  and 
were  an  effective  cause  of  increased  prejudice  and 
misunderstanding.  Chatham  took  the  wise  view  of 
such  excesses,  when  he  said  that  he  could  not  justify 
them,  but  that  ebullitions  of  liberty  ought  to  be 
treated  tenderly.  "The  discontent  of  two  millions 
of  people  deserves  consideration  and  the  foundation 
ought  to  be  removed."  That  was  a  statesman's 
judgment,  but  the  majority  of  mankind  are  not 
statesmen,  and  the  mob  violences  in  America,  harsh 
and  cruel  in  their  local  efTect,  were  a  serious  hind- 
rance to  the  cause  of  conciliation  and  a  blot  on  the 
record  of  the  patriotic  party.  They  afforded  some 
justification  for  the  dispatch  of  two  regiments  to 
Boston,  which  Chatham  regarded  as  a  grievous  mis- 
take. "  This  poor  country,"  he  wrote  to  Calcraft, 
**  seems  doomed  to  the  worst  species  of  ruin  ;  that 
wrought  by  her  own  hands,  by  oppressing,  as  fool- 
ishly as  cruelly,  the  cause  of  our  greatness,  the  de- 
voted colonies."  *  The  presence  of  the  troops  in 
Boston  was  a  source  of  constant  irritation  ;  if  they  had 

*  Chatham  Correspondence y  iii.,  468, 


33 B  William  Pitt.  wni- 

been  used  to  protect  the  friends  of  England  against  the 
dangers  of  riot  they  might  have  served  a  proper  end, 
but  they  were  in  fact  a  parade  of  power,  a  visible 
threat,  which  irritated  the  inhabitants  of  Boston 
without  alarming  them. 

In  1772,  the  colonies  estabhshed  the  committees  of 
grievances,  which  afforded  a  means  of  communication 
between  the  different  provinces  and  prepared  the  way 
for  the  Continental  Congresses.  The  home  Govern- 
ment, realising  too  late  the  weakness  of  the  executive 
and  judiciary  in  the  colonial  constitutions,  proposed 
to  pay  the  salaries  of  Governors  and  Judges,  a  meas- 
ure naturally  alarming  to  the  Assemblies,  which  saw 
their  supremacy  threatened.  In  1773  occurred  the 
famous  publication  of  a  series  of  private  letters,  from 
Hutchinson  and  others,  who  had  advised  **  an 
abridgment  of  English  liberties "  in  America. 
Franklin  had  by  some  unknown  means  obtained  this 
correspondence,  and  transmitted  it  to  his  friends, 
under  a  pledge  that  it  should  not  be  published. 
Copies,  however,  were  soon  printed  and  their  circula- 
tion still  further  inflamed  feeling ;  the  petition  from 
Massachusetts  for  the  dismissal  of  Governor  Hutch- 
inson founded  upon  his  private  letters  was  not  un- 
naturally disregarded  by  the  Privy  Council,  and 
Wedderburn  found  an  occasion  for  his  celebrated  in- 
vective against  Franklin,  an  attack  which  lessened 
FrankHn's  attachment  to  the  British  connection. 
The  East  India  Company  having  obtained  a  licence 
to  export  a  large  stock  of  tea  to  America,  on  Novem- 
ber 18,  1773,  its  ship  Dartmouth  arrived  in  Boston 
harbour  with  the  tea,  and  the  inhabitants  organised 


1778]     The  Attempt  to  Save  the  Empire,    339 

their  defence  as  if  they  were  resisting  an  invading 
army.  For  a  month  the  Dartmouth  lay  in  the  har- 
bour unable  to  land  its  cargo,  and  unable  to  leave  be- 
cause the  Governor  refused  a  pass  until  the  cargo  had 
been  cleared.  At  length  the  tension  was  ended  by  a 
body  of  fifty  men  disguised  as  Indians  boarding  the 
ship  and  emptying  the  tea  into  the  bay.  The  men 
acted  under  the  authority  of  a  town  meeting,  and 
they  well  knew  that  their  act  was  a  declaration  of 
war.  *'  Let  us  consider  the  issue,"  the  younger  Quin- 
cey  had  said  that  same  day,  '■  before  we  advance  to 
those  measures  which  must  bring  on  the  most  trying 
and  terrible  struggle  this  country  ever  saw."  The 
issues  had  been  considered,  the  struggle  had  begun. 
The  reply  of  the  British  Government  was  prompt 
and  stern  ;  although  Shelburne  wrote  to  Chatham 
that  Dartmouth  was  determined  "  to  cover  America 
from  the  present  storm  to  the  utmost  of  his  power," 
and  that  North's  language  was  of  a  moderate  cast, 
yet  the  policy  was  much  more  resolute  than  anything 
which  had  previously  been  done.  A  determined 
effort  to  crush  Boston  into  submission  was  to  be 
made  and  three  acts  were  passed  through  Parliament. 
The  Boston  Port  Bill  closed  that  harbour  to  trade 
until  compensation  for  the  destruction  of  the  tea  was 
made  ;  the  Massachusetts  Charter  was  remodelled  in 
a  drastic  manner,  and  a  futile  provision  was  inserted 
forbidding  public  meetings,  other  than  those  for  elec- 
tions, without  consent  of  the  Governor;  and  for  the 
impartial  administration  of  justice  power  was  given 
to  the  Governor  to  transfer  persons  charged  with 
murder,  or  any  capital  offence,  for  trial  in  Great  Brit- 


340  William  Pitt,  [1772- 

ain  or  another  colony.  The  view  taken  of  these  acts 
by  the  people  of  Massachusetts  was  tersely  stated  in 
their  remonstrance  :  "  By  the  first,"  they  wrote,  "  the 
property  of  unoffending  thousands  is  arbitrarily  taken 
away  for  the  act  of  a  few  individuals  ;  by  the  second 
our  chartered  liberties  are  annihilated ;  and  by  the 
third  our  lives  may  be  destroyed  with  impunity." 
In  their  ignorance  of  the  real  feelings  and  character 
of  the  Americans  the  Ministry  supposed  that  they 
had  but  to  crush  Boston  while  the  rest  of  the  colo- 
nists looked  on ;  their  action  in  fact  was  the  signal 
for  immediate  union  among  the  colonies,  and  their 
coercion  of  a  single  town  was  answered  by  a  Conti- 
nental Congress.  The  House  of  Commons  shared 
their  ignorance,  and  it  is  surely  the  height  of  irony  to 
find  Horace  Walpole  writing  to  a  friend  in  the  month 
when  the  acts  were  before  Parliament,  "  We  are  in 
great  tranquillity  here  —  even  America  gives  us  no 
pain —  at  least  it  makes  no  sensation,  for  the  Oppos- 
ition has  not  taken  up  the  cause.  The  general  line 
against  the  Bostonians  is  threats."  *  While  the  Amer- 
icans prepared  for  their  Congress,  a  general  election 
was  taking  place  in  England  and  the  majority  of 
Lord  North  was  increased. 

Chatham's  view  of  the  situation  was  fully  stated  in 
a  letter  to  Shelburne  of  March  20,  1774. 

"  The  violence  committed  upon  the  tea  cargo  is  cert- 
ainly criminal  ;  nor  would  it  be  real  kindness  to  the  Amer- 
icans to  adopt  their  passions  and  wild  pretensions,  when 
they  manifestly  violate  the  indispensable  ties  of  civil  soci- 

*  Letter Sy  vi.,  69, 


Copyright 


Walker  &  Cockerell. 


HORACE  WALPOLE. 

FROM  THE  PAINTING  BY  N.  HONE  IN  THE  NATIONAL  PORTRAIT  GALLERY. 


•i,r" 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


1778]     The  Attempt  to  Save  the  Empire,    341 

ety .  Boston,  therefore,  appears  to  me  to  owe  reparation  for 
such  a  destruction  of  the  property  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany. This  is,  to  my  mind,  clear  and  evident ;  but,  I 
confess,  it  is  equally  clear  to  me,  that  in  pursuing  this 
just  object.  Government  may  become  unjust ;  if  they  at- 
tempt to  blend  the  enforcement  of  general  declared  rights 
of  the  British  Parliament  (which  I  must  for  ever  treat  as 
rights  in  theory  only)  with  a  due  satisfaction  for  a  tu- 
multuous act  of  a  very  criminal  nature.  The  methods, 
too,  proposed,  by  way  of  coercion,  appear  to  me  too  se- 
vere, as  well  as  highly  exceptionable  in  order  of  time,  for 
reparation  ought  first  to  be  demanded  in  a  solemn  man- 
ner, and  refused  by  the  town  and  magistracy  of  Boston, 
before  such  a  bill  of  pains  and  penalties  can  be  called 
just.  .  .  .  Perhaps  a  fatal  desire  to  take  advantage 
of  this  guilty  tumult  of  the  Bostonians,  in  order  to  crush 
the  spirit  of  liberty  among  the  Americans  in  general,  has 
taken  possession  of  the  heart  of  Government.  If  that 
mad  and  cruel  measure  should  be  pushed,  one  needs  not 
to  be  a  prophet  to  say,  England  has  seen  her  best  days. 
Boston,  I  hope  and  believe,  would  make  reparation."  * 

Washington  also  remarked  that  there  should  have 
been  a  requisition  of  payment  and  refusal  of  it  before 
the  Boston  Port  Bill  was  passed,  and  undoubtedly 
this  would  have  been  the  wise  and  just  course,  al- 
though at  the  same  time  it  is  highly  improbable  that 
Boston  would  have  made  any  reparation.  Such  a 
demand  preceding  coercion  would  at  least  have  set 
the  English  Government  in  a  fairer  light  in  the  eyes 
of  other  Americans,  whereas  coercion  preceding  the 
demand  brought  the  other  colonies  to  the  side  of 


*  Chatham  Correspondence^  iv.,  336,  337. 


342  William  Pitt.     ■  IU72- 

Massachusetts.     Compensation,  as  Chatham  wrote, 
implied  a  recognition  of  the  authority  of  Great  Britain. 

"  Had  they  stopped  here,  much  ground  would  have 
been  gained  for  English  government,  and  the  great  work 
of  reducing  back  the  colonies  to  order,  and  a  competent 
measure  of  obedience,  would  have  been  more  than  half 
accomplished.  By  going  on  to  further  severities,  I  fear, 
all  is  put  to  the  hazard.  America  guilty,  would  have 
submitted  ;  and  subsequent  lenitives  might  have  restored 
mutual  good  will  and  necessary  obedience.  America 
disfranchised,  and  her  character  mutilated,  may,  I  for- 
bode,  resist,  and  the  cause  become  general  on  that  vast 
continent.     If  this  happens,  England  is  no  more."  * 

Chatham  returned  to  London  in  order  to  speak 
against  another  measure  of  this  year  renewing  the 
Quartering  Act,  and  made  a  speech  f  of  which  the 
profound  wisdom  was  proved  by  subsequent  events. 
**  By  blocking  up  the  harbour  of  Boston,  you  have 
involved  the  innocent  trader  in  the  same  punishment 
with  the  guilty  profligates  who  destroyed  your  mer- 
chandise." "  My  Lords,  I  am  an  old  man,  and 
would  advise  the  noble  lords  in  of^ce  to  adopt  a 
more  gentle  mode  of  governing  America,  for  the  day 
is  not  far  distant,  when  America  may  vie  with  these 
kingdoms,  not  only  in  arms  but  in  arts  also."  ''  In- 
stead of  adding  to  their  miseries,  adopt  some  lenient 
measures,  which  may  lure  them  to  their  duty." 
'*  Pass  an  amnesty  on  all  their  youthful  errors." 
"  Should  their  turbulence  exist  after  your  proffered 
terms  of  forgiveness,  I  will  be  among  the  foremost 

"^Chatham  Correspondence^  iv.,  342.  \Ibid,,  iv.,  345. 


1778]     The  Attempt  to  Save  the  Empire.    343 

to  move  for  such  measures  as  will  effectually  prevent 
a  further  relapse."  Chatham's  insight  into  the 
American  character  was  the  outcome  of  deep  affec- 
tion and  sympathy ;  to  him  they  were  not  ''  our 
subjects,"  but  Englishmen  who  still  loved  the  tones 
of  that  deep  chord  which  Hampden  smote,  they  were 
cives  Romani,  men  of  the  true  race,  of  like  faith  and 
passions  with  himself.  *'  There,"  he  wrote  of  Amer- 
ica, "  there  where  I  had  garnered  up  my  heart." 

The  colonists,  on  the  initiative  of  the  Virginian 
Assembly,  supported  Boston  ;  the  day  on  which  the 
port  was  closed  was  proclaimed  a  day  of  prayer  and 
fasting,  a  solemn  league  and  covenant  was  entered 
into  to  abstain  from  all  commerce  with  Great  Brit- 
ain, and  on  September  5,  1774,  the  delegates  of 
twelve  colonies  met  in  the  Continental  Congress  at 
Philadelphia.  The  constitution  of  this  Congress  was 
informal,  its  authority  was  moral  rather  than  legal. 
"  Certain  it  is,"  says  an  American  historian,  ''  that 
only  a  very  small  minority  of  the  people  of  the  col- 
onies were  concerned  in  calling  the  early  Congresses. 
As  certain,  also,  is  it  that  a  very  large  preponder- 
ance of  the  people  of  all  classes  were  then  strongly 
opposed  to  any  violent  measures,  to  sundering  ties 
of  allegiance,  or  to  seeking  anything  beyond  a  peace- 
ful redress  of  grievances."  *  Within  the  Congress, 
among  the  ablest  Americans  a  strong  body  of  mod- 
erate opinion  was  disclosed,  and  though  a  minority 
was  already  determined  upon  independence  the 
actual  outcome  was  a  declaration  of  principles  far 
from  extreme  and  in  no  sense  seditious.    The  resist- 


*Dr.  Ellis,  in  Winsor's  History  of  America^  vi.,  233. 


344  William  Pitt.  [1772- 

ance  of  Boston  was  approved,  and  a  lengthy  state- 
ment of  grievances  enumerated  acts  which  must  be 
repealed,  declared  a  standing  army  illegal  without 
colonial  consent,  and  condemned  the  arbitrary  acts 
of  Governors.  But  on  the  other  hand  only  peaceful 
means  of  resistance  were  commended,  the  legislative 
authority  of  Parliament  was  admitted,  and  in  the  ad- 
dress to  the  people  of  Great  Britain  it  was  explicitly 
stated :  "  Place  us  in  the  same  situation  that  we 
were  at  the  close  of  the  last  war,  and  our  former 
harmony  will  be  restored."  Even  the  second  Con- 
gress, it  must  be  remembered,  declared  that  it  did 
not  desire  independence,  and  adopted  a  petition  to 
the  King,  full  of  loyal  expressions,  which  was  drawn 
up  by  Dickinson,  who  represented  the  moderate 
section  of  the  patriotic  party.  It  besought  the  sov- 
ereign himself  to  interfere  on  behalf  of  his  subjects. 
Richard  Penn,  who  carried  the  petition,  was  not  per- 
mitted to  see  the  King,  for  George  III.  had  no  inten- 
tion of  using  the  prerogative  in  a  manner  which 
might  have  won  for  it  a  splendid  historical  justifi- 
cation. A  proclamation  against  sedition  was  the 
only  answer  that  reached  the  ears  of  his  American 
subjects. 

Chatham  wrote  and  spoke  with  the  highest  admir- 
ation of  the  Congress.  "  I  think  it  must  be  evident 
to  every  unprejudiced  man  in  England  who  feels  for 
the  rights  of  mankind,  that  America,  under  all  her 
oppressions  and  provocations,  holds  forth  to  us  the 
most  fair  and  just  opening,  for  restoring  harmony 
and  affectionate  intercourse  as  heretofore."  *     For 


*  Chatham  Carrespondence,  iv. ,  368. 


1778]     The  Attempt  to  Save  the  Empire.    345 

January  20,  1775,  he  had  given  notice  of  a  motion 
on  America,  and  on  that  day  he  took  Franklin  to 
the  House.  The  purport  of  his  motion  was  not 
known,  and  Horace  Walpole  mentions  two  curious 
speculations.  ''  I  had  been  told  that  Lord  Chatham 
was  commissioned  by  Dr.  Franklin  to  offer  the  King 
;^3 50,000  a  year  from  America,  if  the  offensive  bills 
were  repealed.  The  Ministers  thought  he  was  to 
ask  for  an  increase  of  force,  so  their  intelligence  was 
at  least  no  better  than  mine?""^  What  Chatham 
actually  moved  for  was  an  address  to  the  King  to 
remove  the  troops  from  Boston,  and  when  this  was 
known,  says  Walpole,  the  Opposition  stared  and 
shrugged,  the  courtiers  stared  and  laughed.  It  was 
in  fact  a  proposal  as  startling  and  unexpected  as  that 
other  very  different  one  for  an  immediate  war  with 
Spain  which  he  had  submitted  to  a  trembling  Coun- 
cil, and  it  was  the  more  courageous  of  the  two.  The 
man  of  decisive  action  was  seen  in  both,  and  the  wis- 
dom of  both  proposals  was  justified  by  the  event. 
It  was  the  moment  of  crisis,  and  though  the  voices 
of  the  street  and  market  place  would  have  derided 
the  withdrawal  of  troops,  as  an  act  of  cowardice,  of 
weakness  inexcusable  in  a  mighty  people,  yet  this 
was  the  one  solution,  and  it  was  offered  at  the 
last  available  hour.  But  the  courtiers  stared  and 
laughed,  caring  less  in  their  ephemeral  wisdom  for  the 
union  with  America  than  for  beating  the  Americans. 
The  speech  in  which  Chatham  urged  his  proposal 
was  essentially  practical.  "  Gage's  army  in  Boston," 
he  said,  "  is  an  army  of  impotence  and  irritation  ;  at 
*  Letters,  vi.,  185. 


34^  William  Pitt.  [1772- 

any  moment  the  first  blood  may  be  shed,  and  it  will 
be  immedicabile  viilnus ;  an  hour  now  lost  in  allay- 
ing ferments  in  America  may  produce  years  of  calam- 
ity." "Adopt,  then,  the  grace,  while  you  have  the 
opportunity,  of  reconcilement." 

"What  though  you  march  from  town  to  town,  and 
from  province  to  province  ;  though  you  should  be  able 
to  enforce  a  temporary  and  local  submission,  which  I 
only  suppose,  not  admit — how  shall  you  be  able  to  secure 
the  obedience  of  the  country  you  leave  behind  you  in 
your  progress,  to  grasp  the  dominion  of  eighteen  hun- 
dred miles  of  continent,  populous  in  numbers,  possess- 
ing valour,  liberty  and  resistance  ?  .  .  .  As  an 
American,  I  would  recognise  to  England  her  supreme 
right  of  regulating  commerce  and  navigation  ;  as  an 
Englishman  in  birth  and  principles,  I  recognise  to  the 
Americans  their  supreme  inalienable  right  in  their  prop- 
erty ;  a  right  which  they  are  justified  in  the  defence  of 
to  the  last  extremity.  To  maintain  this  principle  is  the 
common  cause  of  the  Whigs  on  the  other  side  of  the  At- 
lantic, and  on  this.  *  'Tis  liberty  to  liberty  engaged,' 
that  they  will  defend  themselves,  their  families,  and  their 
country.  In  this  great  cause  they  are  immovably  allied  ; 
it  is  the  alliance  of  God  and  nature — immutable,  eternal 
— fixed  as  the  firmament  of  heaven.  .  .  .  For 
solidity  of  reasoning,  force  of  sagacity,  and  wisdom  of 
conclusion,  under  such  a  complication  of  difficult  cir- 
cumstances, no  nation  or  body  of  men  can  stand  in  pre- 
ference to  the  general  Congress  at  Philadelphia.  I 
trust  it  is  obvious  to  your  Lordships,  that  all  attempts 
to  impose  servitude  upon  such  men,  to  establish  despot- 
ism over  such  a  mighty  continental  nation^  must  be 
vain,  must  be  fatal.     We  shall  be  forced  ultimately  to 


1778]     The  Attempt  to  Save  the  Empire,    347 

retreat,  I  say  we  must  necessarily  undo  these  violent  op- 
pressive acts ;  they  must  be  repealed — you  will  repeal 
them  ;  I  pledge  myself  for  it,  that  you  will  in  the  end 
repeal  them  ;  I  stake  my  reputation  on  it  : —  I  will  con- 
sent to  be  taken  for  an  idiot,  if  they  are  not  finally  re- 
pealed. .  .  .  Concession  comes  with  better  grace 
and  more  salutary  effect  from  superior  power  :  Tuque 
prior,  tu  parce,  projice  tela  manu.  ...  If  the 
Ministers  thus  persevere  in  misadvising  and  misleading 
the  King,  I  will  not  say  that  they  can  alienate  the  affec- 
tions of  his  subjects  from  his  Crown  ;  but  I  will  affirm, 
that  they  will  make  the  Crown  not  worth  his  wearing. 
I  will  not  say  that  the  King  is  betrayed  ;  but  I  will  pro- 
nounce that  the  kingdom  is  undone."* 

The  entire  speech  is  worthy  to  be  remembered 
with  Burke's  great  philosophic  oration,  and  higher 
praise  it  is  impossible  to  bestow. 

On  February  1st,  Chatham  produced  in  the  Lords 
his  plan  for  settling  the  troubles  in  America.f  It 
was  in  the  form  of  a  Prpvisional  Act,  which  aimed  at 
a  lasting  settlement  of  claims  not  sufficiently  ascer- 
tained and  circumscribed.  It  asserted  the  supreme 
legislative  and  superintending  power  of  Parliament 
and  the  Crown,  particularly  in  regard  to  navigation 
and  trade,  and  to  the  dispatch  of  armies  to  any  of 
the  British  dominions  without  the  consent  of  any 
provincial  assembly  existing  in  such  dominion.  It 
was  further  declared  and  enacted  "  that  no  tallage, 
tax,  or  other  charge  for  His  Majesty's  revenue,  shall 
be  commanded  or  levied   from  British  freemen  in 


*  Chatham  Correspondence^  iv.,  377-384. 

\  The  text  is  in  Chatham  Correspondence^  iv.,  App,  I, 


348  William  Pitt.  ivni- 

America,  without  common  consent,  by  act  of  pro- 
vincial assembly  there,  duly  convened  for  that  pur- 
pose." The  meeting  of  the  General  Congress  at 
Philadelphia  was  legalised  in  order  that  it  might 
"  take  into  consideration  the  making  due  recognition 
of  the  supreme  legislative  authority  and  superintend- 
ing power  of  Parliament  over  the  colonies  as  afore- 
said." The  Congress  was  to  be  required  to  consider 
a  free  grant  to  the  King  of  a  certain  perpetual  revenue 
to  be  appropriated  towards  the  National  Debt,  and 
to  fix  the  quotas  to  be  borne  by  each  province.  The 
recognition  of  Parliamentary  authority  by  Congress 
was  to  precede  the  operation' of  the  clause  declaring 
the  sole  right  of  the  colonies  in  the  matter  of  taxa- 
tion. Further,  the  Admiralty  Courts  in  America 
were  reduced  to  their  ancient  limits,  trial  by  jury 
was  restored,  and  the  jury  of  vicinage.  A  list  of 
acts  followed  which  were  suspended  from  the  date 
of  the  act,  and  to  be  repealed  from  the  day  on  which 
the  colonies  recognised  the  authority  of  Parliament. 
These  acts  were  those  against  which  the  Congress 
had  protested.  The  Judges  were  to  be  paid  by  the 
Crown  but  to  hold  office  quam  diu  se  bene  gesserint^ 
and  the  Charters  of  the  several  colonies  were  not  to 
be  invaded  or  resumed  except  on  some  legal  ground 
of  forfeiture. 

Chatham,  while  preparing  this  scheme,  had  lengthy 
consultations  with  Franklin.  Mr.  Franklin  claimed 
no  share  in  its  authorship,  his  principal  work  being 
to  copy  into  the  Bill  a  list  of  the  acts  of  which 
Congress  had  demanded  the  repeal.  It  is  perhaps 
idle  to  discuss  the  capacity  of  this  scheme  to  turn 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN. 

AFTER  THE  PAINTING  BY  DUPLE88IS. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


1778]     The  Attempt  to  Save  the  Empire.    349 

the  current  of  destiny.  It  offered  a  solution  of  the 
problem,  but  what  was  there  to  persuade  men  to 
adopt  it?  The  wisdom  of  the  schools  could  not 
avail  when  power  was  in  the  hand  of  George  III.,  of 
Sandwich  and  Gower  and  Hillsborough.  The  Lords 
would  not  even  admit  the  Bill  to  a  second  reading, 
and  in  America  the  scheme  received  little  attention.* 
It  was  not  unnatural  that  the  greatest  Englishman 
of  the  day  should  be  angered  by  the  contemptuous 
usage  he  received  from  the  men  who  were  hurrying 
England  into  a  disastrous  war,  which  they  were 
utterly  incapable  of  conducting ;  and  Chatham  an- 
ticipated the  verdict  of  history  in  a  passage  of  fierce 
invective  against  the  Ministers.  "  The  whole  of  your 
political  conduct  has  been  one  continued  series  of 
weakness,  temerity,  despotism,  ignorance,  futility, 
negligence,  and  the  most  notorious  servility,  in- 
capacity, and  corruption."  "  Your  situation  is  pre- 
carious ;  who  should  wonder  that  you  can  put  a 
negative  on  any  measure  which  must  annihilate  your 
power,  deprive  you  of  your  emoluments,  and  at  once 
reduce  you  to  that  state  of  insignificance  for  which 
God  and  nature  designed  you?"f  The  delivery  of 
the  speech,  says  Walpole,  recalled  the  memory  of 
Chatham's  ancient  lustre. 

But  while  the  acceptance  of  Chatham's  scheme 
was  impossible  in  England,  and  doubtful  in  America, 


*  The  New  York  yourn  a  I  sa.\d  of  the  Bill,  The  friendly  appear- 
ance and  perhaps  design  of  a  great  part  of  the  Bill,  would  have  a 
powerful  tendency  to  divide  and  weaken  us."  Amer.  Archives^ 
Series  iv.,  i.,  1506. 

\  Chatham  Correspondence ^  iv.,  395,  396. 


350  William  Pitt.  wni- 

it  is  the  best  example  of  his  method  in  legislation, 
illustrating  both  his  great  power  and  insight  and 
the  limitations  of  his  mind.  His  belief  in  great 
principles  was  so  profound  that  he  often  overlooked 
the  difficulties  of  their  application,  and  no  doubt  he 
overrated  the  offer  of  a  Declaratory  Bill  to  nations 
which  were  arming.  Opposing  hosts  do  not  lay 
down  their  arms  because  a  careful  logical  statement 
shows  that  there  is  both  truth  and  error  in  the  con- 
tentions of  each  side.  The  Bill  was  in  the  nature  of 
an  arbitrator's  award,  and  such  judgments  were  even 
more  difficult  of  acceptance  in  the  eighteenth  cent- 
ury than  in  our  own.  But  if  all  that  can  be  urged 
in  depreciation  of  its  academic  nature  be  granted, 
the  scheme  possesses  remarkable  merits.  Its  central 
and  most  striking  feature  is  the  recognition  of  the 
Congress,  its  approbation  of  colonial  unity  and, 
within  clear  limits,  of  colonial  self-government. 
Many  Englishmen  feared  the  Congress  as  a  rival 
Parliament  within  the  Empire,  many  condemned  it 
as  a  rebel  assembly,  but  Chatham  proposed  to  use 
it.  It  had  been  naturally  evolved,  its  proceedings 
had  displayed  true  political  instinct,  its  declarations 
afforded  "a  just  and  fair  opening"  and  were  avow- 
edly hostile  to  separation.  Therefore,  said  Chatham, 
strengthen  it  by  your  recognition,  use  it  as  your 
means  of  communication  with  all  the  colonies,  reply 
to  its  opening  by  announcing  the  terms  of  a  general 
settlement,  for  it  is  easier  to  deal  with  one  Congress 
than  with  many  Assemblies.  Adams,  we  know,  was 
alarmed  lest  the  moderation  of  Congress  should  pro- 
duce agreement,  and  as  Adams  aimed  at  separation 


1778]     The  Attempt  to  Save  the  Empire,    351 

while  Chatham  aimed  at  union,  the  alarm  of  Adams 
was  the  justification  of  Chatham.  This  feature  of 
the  plan  was  an  unique  proof  of  political  wisdom, 
and  raises  it  higher  than  the  terms  of  conciliation 
outlined  in  Burke's  thirteen  resolutions.  The  effect 
of  its  adoption  upon  American  sentiment  would  have 
been  great,  and  the  powerful  body  of  opinion  in 
favour  of  England  would  have  been  strengthened. 
Doubtless  the  terms  of  settlement  contained  in  the 
Bill  would  not  have  been  immediately  accepted,  but 
it  is  at  least  equally  certain  that  they  would  not  have 
been  immediately  rejected.  Discussion  would  have 
been  substituted  for  war,  and  out  of  discussion  a 
different  issue  might  have  come  forth.  It  was,  how- 
ever, a  counsel  of  perfection  to  ask  Parliament  to 
recognise  and  confer  with  the  Congress  that  had  been 
declared  a  rebel  and  seditious  body,  and  the  House 
of  Commons  was  never  created  which  would  have 
adopted  so  ideal  a  course  in  the  midst  of  so  heated 
a  controversy. 

While  Chatham  eagerly  counselled  a  magnanimous 
generosity,  it  is  clear  that  he  thought  first  of  the 
Empire  as  a  whole.  This  was  a  Bill  of  assertion  as 
well  as  a  Bill  of  concession,  and  no  point  was  yielded 
that  would  weaken  the  central  authority  in  any  essen- 
tial particular.  The  colonists  had  of  course  protested 
against  standing  armies  and  against  the  commercial 
regulations  which  were  the  root  cause  of  American 
discontent.  Chatham,  however,  believed  that  these 
matters  were  of  general  Imperial  concern,  and  so 
asserted  in  his  Bill.  In  an  interview  with  Franklin 
he  expressed  much  satisfaction  that  America  did  not 


352  William  Pitt.  wni- 

aim  at  independence  or  getting  rid  of  the  Navigation 
Acts,  *'  but  allowed  that  some  amendment  might  be 
made  in  the  commercial  laws."  "^  Franklin's  judg- 
ment on  the  plan  as  a  whole  is  of  great  interest,  and 
confirms  the  belief  that  if  it  had  been  accepted  it 
would  at  least  have  produced  an  amicable  discussion. 
On  February  5,  1775,  Franklin  wrote  to  an  American 
friend  :  f 

"  It  is  thought  by  our  friends,  that  Lord  Chatham's 
plan,  if  it  had  been  enacted  here,  would  have  prevented 
present  mischief,  and  might  have  been  the  foundation 
of  a  lasting  good  agreement  ;  for,  though  in  some  points 
it  might  not  perfectly  coincide  with  our  ideas  and  wishes, 
we  should  have  proposed  modifications  or  variations, 
where  we  should  judge  them  necessary  ;  in  fine,  the  two 
countries  might  have  met  in  perfect  union.  I  hope 
therefore,  it  will  be  treated  with  respect  by  our  writers, 
and  its  author  honoured  for  the  attempt ;  for,  though  he 
has  put  some  particulars  into  it,  as  I  think,  by  way  of 
complying  a  little  with  the  general  prejudice  here,  and 
to  make  more  material  parts  go  better  down,  yet  I 
am  persuaded  he  would  not  otherwise  be  tenacious  of 
those  parts,  meaning  sincerely  to  make  us  contented  and 
happy,  so  far  as  consistent  with  the  general  welfare." 

Unhappily  Chatham  fell  ill  shortly  after  this  date, 
and  until  May,  1777,  was  absent  from  pubhclife,  and 
unable  to  influence  opinion.  During  this  period  the 
question  he  had  hoped  to  settle  by  political  means 
was  transferred  to  another  arena,  and  men  were  only 
reminded  of  the  great  conciliator  by  the  rapid  fulfil- 


*  Franklin^ s  Works  (Sparks),  v.,  4,  7.  f  Ibid^  x.,  438. 


1778]     The  Attempt  to  Save  the  Empire.     353 

ment  of  his  mournful  prophecies.  North  made  a 
declaration  that  when  any  colony  voluntarily  made 
such  a  contribution  to  the  defence  of  the  Empire  as 
satisfied  Parliament  it  should  be  free  of  Parliamentary 
taxes, but  beforethis  offer  could  be  considered  thefirst 
blood  had  been  shed  at  Lexington,  the  immedicabile 
vulnus  had  been  inflicted.  Congress,  indeed,  still  de- 
clared that  they  had  no  desire  to  separate,  and  Dick- 
inson made  one  last  effort  in  the  petition  to  the 
King,  but  an  army  of  self-defence  was  organised,  and 
Washington  was  given  the  command.  How  different 
would  have  been  the  mood  of  this  Congress  if 
Chatham's  plan  had  been  adopted  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that,  although  England  spoke  only  through 
North,  every  important  step  in  a  revolutionary  direc- 
tion was  opposed^  and  carried  only  by  bare  majori- 
ties.. But  Congress  was  followed  by  the  battle  of 
Bunker's  Hill,  by  the  futile  invasion  of  Canada,  and 
by  Lord  Dunmore's  savage  violence  in  Virginia. 
The  war  had  commenced,  and  with  evil  auspices  for 
the  mother  country.  Howe  evacuated  Boston  in 
March,  1776,  and  sailed  for  Halifax,  and  so  difficult 
was  it  to  find  sufficient  men  for  the  service  that 
George  HL  was  compelled  to  buy  seventeen  thou- 
sand of  their  subjects  from  the  Princes  of  Brunswick 
and  Hesse  Cassel  and  Waldeck.  The  cost  of  this 
purchase  was  a  heavy  one,  as  it  was  followed  im- 
mediately by  the  Declaration  of  Lidependence. 

Chatham  would  not  allow  his  son,  who  had  been 
with  Carleton  in  Canada,  to  serve  against  the  Ameri- 
cans, and  in  July,  1776,  at  the  moment  when  inde- 
pendence was  declared  he  confided  to  his  physician  a 


354  William  Pitt.  wni- 

statement  of  his  opinions,*  which  remained  unshaken, 
in  regard  to  America. 

"  Unless  effectual  measures  were  speedily  taken  for 
reconciliation  with  the  colonies,  he  was  fully  persuaded, 
that,  in  a  very  few  years,  France  will  set  her  foot  on 
English  ground.  That  in  the  present  moment,  her 
policy  may  probably  be  to  wait  some  time,  in  order  to 
see  England  more  deeply  engaged  in  this  ruinous  war, 
against  herself^  in  America  ;  as  well  as  to  prove  how  far 
the  Americans,  abetted  by  France  indirectly  only,  may  be 
able  to  make  a  stand,  before  she  takes  an  open  part,  by 
declaring  war  upon  England." 

The  Bourbon  danger  was  never  absent  from  Chat- 
ham's mind  when  he  considered  America;  but  the 
English  Ministers  were  either  actually  blind  to  it 
or  wilfully  indifferent.  That  Chatham  accurately 
gauged  the  French  policy  is  clear  from  the  secret 
memorials  which  Vergennes  a  few  months  previously 
had  forwarded  to  the  French  King;  the  long  prepa- 
rations of  Choiseul  had  been  closely  followed  by 
Shelburne  who,  as  Disraeli  said,  was  the  best  in- 
formed statesman  in  Europe,  and  had  been  com- 
municated by  him  to  Chatham,  but  the  ©facials'  in 
England  had  been  criminally  neglectful  of  this  tre- 
mendous feature  in  the  problem  confronting  them. 
War  with  the  colonists  meant  war  with  the  Bour- 
bons, and  yet  the  navy  was  neglected.  Vergennes 
informed  his  sovereign  that  Providence  had  marked 
out  this  moment  for  the  humiliation  of  England, 
and  when  the  policy  of  open  war  was  declined,  he 


*  Chatham  Correspondence^  iv. ,  424, 


1778]     The  Attempt  to  Save  the  Empire,     355 

counselled  the  exact  policy  which  Chatham  had  indi- 
cated as  probable.  "  The  continuance  of  the  war  for 
at  least  one  year  is  desirable  to  the  two  Crowns.  To 
that  end  the  British  Ministry  must  be  maintained  in 
the  persuasion  that  France  and  Spain  are  pacific,  so 
that  it  may  not  fear  to  embark  in  an  active  and 
costly  campaign,  while  on  the  other  hand  the  cour- 
age of  the  Americans  should  be  kept  up  by  secret 
favours  and  vague  hopes  which  will  prevent  accom- 
modation." This  policy  was  carried  out,  and  arms 
and  money  were  granted  to  the  Americans,  while 
Vergennes  was  assuring  the  English  ambassador  that 
France  was  strictly  neutral  and  pacific.  The  Ameri- 
can commissioners  were  able  to  assure  their  country- 
men that  every  nation  in  Europe  wished  to  see 
Britain  humbled.  All  scruples  against  seeking  for- 
eign assistance  were  silenced  by  the  employment  of 
German  mercenaries,  and  the  ill  success  of  Amer- 
ican arms  during  1776  and  1777  made  it  an  urgent 
necessity. 

It  is  impossible  to  trace  even  in  outline  the  course 
of  the  war,  and  it  is  enough  to  say  that  the  first 
campaigns  convinced  the  Americans  of  the  vast 
difificulties  involved  in  the  struggle,  and  showed  also 
to  astute  observers  that  although  the  British  might 
win  pitched  battles  they  could  not  subdue  a  conti- 
nent three  thousand  miles  from  their  base.  The 
physical  difficulties  of  intercommunication  between 
their  armies  were  too  great  for  complete  success. 
If  a  great  War  Minister  had  been  in  command,  it 
is  possible  that  temporary  success  might  have  been 
achieved ;  but  the  War  Office  was  under  the  casual 


356  William  Pitt.  [1772- 

superintendence  of  Lord  George  Germaine,  and  the 
generals  employed  consistently  failed  to  follow  up 
their  advantages.  Howe  took  New  York  and  Phila- 
delphia in  the  course  of  his  leisurely  campaigns,  and 
Burgoyne,  marching  south  from  Canada,  began  with 
a  brilliant  success  in  the  capture  of  Ticonderoga. 
These  first  successes  made  the  war  popular  in  Eng- 
land, though  her  commerce  suffered  terribly  from  the 
American  privateers,  which  won  large  fortunes  for 
their  owners.  The  first  great  check  to  the  British 
arms  was  the  Convention  of  Saratoga  (October  17, 
1777),  when  Burgoyne,  cut  off  from  his  expected 
allies  and  surrounded  by  the  enemy,  was  compelled 
to  surrender  his  whole  army. 

The  moment  his  health  allowed,  Chatham  returned 
to  London,  and  on  May  30,  1777,  moved  an  address 
for  the  cessation  of  hostilities.'^  He  urged  the  im- 
possibility of  conquering  America,  and  the  impend- 
ing danger  of  French  action.  "  You  talk  of  your 
powerful  forces  to  disperse  their  army ;  I  might  as 
well  talk  of  driving  them  before  me  with  this  crutch." 
*'  What  will  you  do  out  of  the  protection  of  your 
fleet?  In  the  winter,  if  your  men  are  together,  they 
are  starved  ;  and  if  dispersed,  they  are  taken  off  in 
detail."  "■  The  moment  a  treaty  with  France  ap- 
pears, you  must  declare  war,  though  you  had  only 
five  ships  of  the  line  in  England."  Speaking  again, 
on  November  20th,  before  the  news  of  Saratoga  had 
arrived,  Chatham,  declaring  that  in  three  campaigns 
we  had  done  nothing  and  suffered  much,  referred  to 
"  the  sufferings  and  perhaps  total  loss  of  the  northern 

*  Chatham  Correspondence^  iv.,  433. 


1778]     The  Atte^npt  to  Save  the  Empire.    357 

force."  It  was  necessary,  he  said,  "to  instruct  the 
throne  in  the  language  of  truth  "  ;  but  yesterday, 
and  England  might  have  stood  against  the  world; 
now  none  so  poor  to  do  her  reverence,  and  Ministers 
dared  not  resent  the  insult  of  French  interference. 
The  discipline  of  our  troops  was  wounded,  and  pil- 
lage and  rapine  were  disgracing  the  British  arms. 
"  But,  my  Lords,  who  is  the  man  that,  in  addition  to 
these  disgraces  and  mischiefs  of  our  army,  has  dared 
to  authorise  and  associate  to  our  arms  the  tomahawk 
and  scalping  knife  of  the  savage  ?  "  '^  Besides  these 
murderers  and  plunderers,  let  me  ask  our  Ministers 
— what  other  allies  have  they  required  ?  What  other 
powers  have  they  associated  to  their  cause  ?  Have 
they  entered  into  an  alliance  with  the  King  of  the 
gipsies?''  He  advocated  an  appeal  to  the  sound 
parts  of  America,  and  protested  that  as  an  English- 
man he  could  not  wish  the  Americans  success  if  they 
struggled  for  independence  and  total  disconnection 
from  England.  **  The  strong  bias  of  America,  at 
least  of  the  wise  and  sounder  parts  of  it,  naturally 
inclines  to  this  happy  and  Constitutional  re-connec- 
tion with  you.  Notwithstanding  the  temporary 
intrigues  with  France,  we  may  still  be  assured  of 
their  ancient  and  confirmed  partiality  to  us.  America 
and  France  cannot  be  congenial ;  there  is  something 
decisive  and  confirmed  in  the  honest  American  that 
will  not  assimilate  to  the  futility  and  levity  of 
Frenchmen."  To  this  occasion  belongs  that  ornate 
philippic  against  the  employment  of  Indians,  which 
is  the  most  frequently  quoted  example  of  Chatham's 
oratory.     Like  all  the  most  astonishing  outbursts  of 


358  Willia7n  Pitt,  [1772- 

his  eloquence,  this  was  delivered  in  reply,  and  was 
occasioned  by  a  chance  remark  in  debate.  It  is  now 
established  that  the  Americans  themselves  were  the 
first  to  employ  Indians,  and  also  that  Indians  had  been 
employed  against  the  French  under  the  sanction  of 
Chatham  himself.  These  facts  afforded  the  defence 
of  precedent  to  Ministers,  but  it  was  not  the  employ- 
ment of  Indians,  but  the  defence  made  by  Suffolk 
which  drew  the  attack  of  Chatham.  Suffolk  con- 
tended that  **itwas  perfectly  justifiable  to  use  all 
the  means  that  God  and  nature  put  into  their  hands," 
and  it  was  this  conjunction  of  the  most  venerable 
names  with  the  vile  barbarity  of  savages  that  inspired 
into  the  orator  wrath,  indignation,  and  scorn,  which 
were  expressed  in  moving  invocations  of  all  that 
most  solemnly  impresses  the  human  mind,  of  religion, 
and  justice,  and  the  State.  Such  rhetoric,  unpre- 
meditated and  uncomposed,  was  the  prerogative  of 
one  to  whom  those  ideas  were  realities ;  when  Chat- 
ham invoked  the  genius  of  the  Constitution  he  spoke 
no  vacant  bombast,  but  rather  called  upon  that  which 
to  his  mind  was  the  supreme  embodiment  of  law. 
"He  started  up,"  says  Grafton,  "with  a  degree  of 
indignation  that  added  to  the  force  of  the  sudden 
and  unexampled  burst  of  eloquence,  which  must 
have  affected  any  audience,  and  which  appeared  to 
me  to  surpass  all  that  we  have  ever  heard  of  the 
celebrated  orators  of  Greece  and  Rome." 

The  news  of  Saratoga  immediately  decided  the 
Court  of  France,  and  on  February  6,  1778,  the  treaty 
acknowledging  American  independence  was  signed, 
and  the  alliance  entered  upon.     The  whole  situation 


1778]     The  Attempt  to  Save  the  Empire.    359 

was  changed ;  the  colonists  were  no  longer  a  party 
within  the  Empire  fighting  for  civil  rights,  but  the 
avowed  ally  of  England's  inveterate  enemy,  pledged 
to  assist  in  the  conquest  of  British  territory  by  for- 
eign arms.  No  blame,  certainly,  can  attach  to  the 
Americans  for  seizing  every  assistance  offered,  as  not 
even  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne  could  compensate 
for  the  serious  weakness  in  organisation  and  equip- 
ment which  had  hitherto  hampered  the  army  of 
Washington,  and  the  urgent  need  of  further  help 
was  fully  realised  by  all  the  leaders  of  American 
opinion.  But  the  English  friends  of  the  colonists 
were  compelled  to  recast  their  consideration  of  the 
case,  which  was  still  further  modified  by  the  new 
policy  adopted  by  North.  When  the  French  alliance 
was  known,  steps  were  taken  to  conciliate  America; 
peace  commissioners  were  appointed  with  full  power 
to  negotiate  a  settlement,  to  suspend  any  act  passed 
since  1763,  and  to  surrender  the  right  of  taxation. 
Everything  might  be  yielded  except  independence. 
Such  was  the  instant  effect  of  the  French  threat 
upon  George  III.  and  Lord  North,  and  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  the  Americans,  having  obtained  so  much, 
beheved  that  they  could  obtain  all,  and  declined  to 
negotiate  except  on  the  basis  of  independence. 
Moreover,  the' offer  made  them  was  suspect,  because 
it  came  from  the  men  who  had  been  their  bitter  ene- 
mies, and  was  conveyed  through  commissioners  who 
could  not  readily  be  trusted.  Chatham  himself  had 
protested  that  conciliation  was  only  possible  if  it 
proceeded  from  men  more  acceptable  to  the  colonists 
than  Ministers  could  be. 


360  Willimn  Pitt.  [1772- 

**  Who  are  the  persons  that  are  to  treat  on  the  part  of 
this  afflicted  and  deluded  country  ?  The  very  men  who 
have  been  the  authors  of  our  misfortunes  ;  the  very  men 
who  have  endeavoured,  by  the  most  pernicious  policy, 
the  highest  injustice  and  oppression,  the  most  cruel  and 
devastating  war,  to  enslave  those  people,  they  would 
conciliate  to  gain  the  confidence  and  affection  of  those 
who  have  survived  the  Indian  tomahawk  and  the  German 
bayonet !  " 

But  even  when  it  is  granted  that  Lord  North 
was  not  the  man  to  achieve  a  settlement,  it  is  clear 
that  from  the  English  point  of  view  his  surrender  of 
all  the  points  demanded  by  the  colonists  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  struggle  altered  the  character  of  the 
contest.  The  war  was  no  longer  waged  on  behalf  of 
a  bad  policy,  but  on  behalf  of  the  Imperial  connec- 
tion between  Great  Britain  and  America. 

In  the  light  of  these  new  facts  two  policies  were 
possible.  The  Rockinghams  argued  that  it  would  be 
even  more  difficult  to  conquer  America  and  the 
Bourbons  combined  than  to  conquer  America  alone, 
and  that  therefore  England  should  immediately 
grant  independence  and  avoid  the  further  difficulties 
involved  in  a  French  and  Spanish  contest.  The  im- 
mediate expediency  of  such  a  course  was  evident,  but 
Chatham  believed  that  national  honour  was  infinitely 
superior  to  such  considerations  of  immediate  expedi- 
ency. He  believed  that  to  admit  a  separation  be- 
tween the  mother  country  and  her  colonies  would  be 
fatal  to  the  greatness  of  England,  and  that  to  admit 
it  on  the  dictation  of  France  would  be  fatal  to  her 
honour.     His  policy  was  to  fight   France,  to  beat 


1778]     The  Attempt  to  Save  the  Empire.    361 

France  in  order  to  convince  the  colonists  that  her  al- 
h'ance  availed  nothing,  and  to  offer  them  everything 
except  that  independence  which  he  believed  so  irre- 
trievably damaging  to  the  Empire.  The  great  strug- 
gle for  wise  government  in  the  colonies,  in  which  he 
had  given  so  freely  of  his  passion  and  his  strength, 
had  suddenly  become  of  secondary  importance ;  the 
ancient  inveterate  enemy  of  England  was  renewing 
her  evil  devices,  and  every  other  contest  was  insig- 
nificant by  the  side  of  that  age-long  warfare  between 
the  neighbouring  nations.  "  The  dismemberment  of 
the  Empire,"  writes  Macaulay  in  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  passages  in  his  essays,  "  seemed  to  Chatham 
less  ruinous  and  humiliating,  when  produced  by  do- 
mestic dissensions,  than  when  produced  by  foreign 
interference.  His  blood  boiled  at  the  degradation  of 
his  country.  Whatever  lowered  her  among  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth,  he  felt  as  a  personal  outrage  to 
himself.  And  the  feeling  was  natural.  He  had 
made  her  so  great.  He  had  been  so  proud  of  her; 
and  she  had  been  so  proud  of  him.  He  remembered 
how,  more  than  twenty  years  before,  in  a  day  of 
gloom  and  dismay,  when  her  possessions  were  torn 
from  her,  when  her  flag  was  dishonoured,  she  had 
called  on  him  to  save  her.  He  remembered  the 
sudden  and  glorious  change  which  his  energy  had 
wrought,  the  long  series  of  triumphs,  the  days 
of  thanksgiving,  the  nights  of  illumination."  That 
indeed  sets  vividly  before  us  the  pride  and  faith 
of  Chatham  in  England  and  in  himself.  But, 
says  Macaulay,  his  passions  overpowered  his  judg- 
ment, and  he  could  not  without  absurdity  maintain 


362  "    William  Pitt.  wni^ 

that  it  was  easier  to  conquer  France  and  America 
together  than  America  alone.  Macaulay  forgot  that 
Chatham  did  not  intend  to  conquer  America;  he 
trusted  that  he  might  win  back  the  affections  of  the 
Americans  —  a  vain  hope  perhaps,  but  not  even  at 
that  date  demonstrably  absurd.  We  must  view  his 
policy  as  a  whole ;  it  demanded  a  complete  change 
in  the  Ministry,  and  the  dismissal  of  those  who  had 
been  their  enemies  would  certainly  have  made  the 
Americans  more  willing  to  negotiate,  just  as  a  dicta- 
torship of  Chatham  would  have  increased  the  alarm 
of  France  and  Spain.  His  name  was  beloved  in 
America  as  it  was  feared  in  Europe.  With  complete 
power  in  his  hands  Chatham  would  have  concen- 
trated his  forces  against  France,  and  exhausted  all 
the  means  of  persuasion  with  America.  It  is  within 
the  verge  of  possibility  that  his  return  to  power 
might  have  induced  the  Americans  to  abandon  the 
treaty  with  France,  and  that  would  have  meant  the 
triumph  of  his  poHcy. 

Before  condemning  Chatham's  policy  of  war  with 
France  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  Bourbons 
had  undoubtedly  broken  the  laws  of  international 
comity.  There  could  be  no  pretence  that  the  revolt 
in  the  colonies  had  reached  the  stage  when  their  re- 
cognition as  an  independent  State  could  be  justified  ; 
there  was  no  settled  government  and  no  absolute 
certainty  of  success.  Was  the  insult  to  be  passed  by 
without  resentment?  What  would  have  been  the 
effect  upon  the  spirit  and  character  of  the  English 
nation  if  it  had  calmly  accepted  foreign  dictation? 
So  humiliating  a  decision  at  a  moment  of  grave  crisis 


1778]     The  Attempt  to  Save  the  Empire,    363 

would  have  lowered  the  courage  of  the  people,  it 
would  have  been  a  lasting  precedent  of  weakness 
to  which  timid  statesmen  might  have  appealed  in 
every  succeeding  crisis.  To  set  prudence  above 
high  spirit,  nicely  to  calculate  the  less  and  more 
of  immediate  expediency  in  moments  of  critical 
decision,  to  obey  the  maxims  of  quietude  when 
others  are  straining  in  the  race  —  these  were  not 
the  counsels  which  had  appealed  to  Englishmen 
or  to  any  other  great  people.  In  the  life  of  na- 
tions as  in  the  life  of  men  the  loss  that  follows  a 
weak  decision  may  be  greater  than  the  loss  that  fol- 
lows defeat. 

The  great  majority  of  the  English  people  realised 
that  war  was  inevitable,  and  during  the  early  months 
of  1778  there  was  great  anxiety  that  Chatham  should 
be  called  back  to  office.  Even  Bute  desired  it,  while 
Mansfield  declared  that  without  Chatham  in  com- 
mand the  ship  must  go  down,  and  North  begged 
the  King  to  allow  him  to  resign  and  to  send  for  the 
Opposition  leader.  ''  I  see  plainly,"  wrote  Camden, 
"  the  public  does  principally  look  up  to  him,  and 
such  is  the  opinion  of  the  world  as  to  his  ability  to 
advise  as  well  as  execute  in  this  perilous  crisis,  that 
they  never  will  be  satisfied  with  any  change  or  ar- 
rangement where  he  is  not  among  the  first."  The 
King  with  that  stoutness  of  heart  that  never  de- 
serted him  was  ready  to  face  a  war  with  France  and 
Spain,  but  he  obstinately  declined  to  grant  office  to 
Chatham  except  as  a  subordinate  Minister  to  North. 
Nothing  could  move  him  from  a  fixed  determination 
to  allow  no  change  which  would  make  the  adminis- 


364  William  Pitt.  [1772- 

tration  independent  of  himself.  "This  episode," 
writes  Mr.  Lecky,  **  appears  to  me  the  most  criminal 
in  the  whole  reign  of  George  III.,  and  in  my  own 
judgment  it  is  as  criminal  as  any  of  those  acts  which 
led  Charles  I.  to  the  scaffold."  If  Chatham  had  re- 
tained his  health  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  he 
would  have  been  forced  upon  the  King  by  Parlia- 
ment and  the  people,  but  the  great  life  was  nearing 
its  end,  and  in  the  moment  when  she  so  much 
needed  him,  amidst  the  storm  of  foreign  war  and 
civil  war  and  universal  hostility,  England  was  to  be 
deprived  of  Chatham. 

It  was  on  April  6,  1778,  that  the  last  great  episode 
occurred,  when  Richmond  proposed  a  motion  in  the 
Lords,  the  purport  of  which  was  that  American 
independence  should  be  immediately  recognised. 
Chatham,  though  worn  with  illness,  came  down  to 
the  House  for  the  last  time.  He  was  dressed  in 
black,  his  body  swathed  in  flannel,  and  supported  by 
crutches,  and  on  either  side  his  son,  William  Pitt, 
and  his  son-in-law.  Lord  Mahon,  assisted  him  to  his 
place.  As  he  entered,  the  peers  made  a  lane  for  him 
to  pass  through,  and  he  bowed  to  them  with  that 
regal  courtliness  for  which  he  was  famous.  On  his 
face  was  the  pallor  of  death  but  the  fire  of  genius 
shone  in  his  eyes.  "  He  looked  like  a  dying  man, 
yet  never  was  seen  a  figure  of  more  dignity  ;  he 
appeared  like  a  being  of  a  superior  species."  When 
Richmond  had  spoken,  he  rose  slowly  and  with 
difificulty  and,  at  first  with  low  and  feeble  voice  but 
afterwards  with  full  resonance,  he  uttered  his  last 
words  to  the  English  people. 


1778]     The  Attempt  to  Save  the  Empire.   365 

"  I  rejoice  that  the  grave  has  not  closed  upon  me  ; 
that  I  am  still  alive  to  lift  up  my  voice  against  the  dis- 
memberment of  this  ancient  and  most  noble  monarchy. 
.  .  .  My  Lords,  his  Majesty  succeeded  to  an  empire 
as  great  in  extent  as  its  reputation  was  unsullied.  Shall 
we  tarnish  the  lustre  of  this  nation  by  an  ignominious 
surrender  of  its  rights  and  fairest  possessions  ?  Shall 
this  great  kingdom  now  fall  prostrate  before  the  House 
of  Bourbon  ?  Surely,  my  Lords,  this  nation  is  no  longer 
what  it  was  !  Shall  a  people  that  fifteen  years  ago  was 
the  terror  of  the  world  now  stoop  so  low  as  to  tell  its 
ancient  inveterate  enemy,  Take  all  we  have,  only  give  us 
peace.     It  is  impossible  !  " 

"  In  God's  Name,  if  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  de- 
clare either  for  peace  or  war,  and  the  former  cannot  be 
preserved  with  honour,  why  is  not  the  latter  commenced 
without  hesitation  ?  I  am  not,  I  confess,  well  informed 
of  the  resources  of  this  kingdom  ;  but  I  trust  it  has  still 
sufficient  to  maintain  its  just  rights  though  I  know  them 
not.  But,  my  Lords,  any  state  is  better  than  despair. 
Let  us  at  least  make  an  effort  ;  and  if  we  must  fall,  let 
us  fall  like  men  !  " 

Richmond  made  a  brief  reply,  and  Chatham  rose 
again,  but  unable  to  utter  a  word  he  pressed  his 
hand  to  his  heart  and  sunk  down  in  a  swoon.  He 
was  carried  unconscious  to  a  house  in  Downing 
Street,  and  thence  was  removed  to  his  villa  at  Hayes, 
where  on  M.ay  i  ith  he  breathed  his  last.  One  inci- 
dent of  that  last  illness  is  recorded.  He  bade  his 
son,  with  whom  he  had  often  studied  the  great  litera- 
tures and  histories  of  the  master  states,  read  from 
the  Iliad  the  lines  describing  the  burial  of  Hector 
and  the  sorrow  of  Troy. 


CHAPTER  X. 

CHATHAM'S  PERSONALITY  AND  HISTORICAL 
POSITION. 

THE  personality  of  Chatham,  which,  viewed  from 
a  distance.  Inspired  whole  nations  with  awe, 
was  enigmatical  to  those  who  knew  him  inti- 
mately, if  indeed  there  were  any  who  so  knew  him. 
Shelburne,  of  all  contemporary  politicians  the  keen- 
est in  brain,  saw  much  of  Chatham  in  his  private  as 
well  as  public  life.  He  amused  himself  by  an  analy- 
sis and  dissection  of  Chatham's  character,  using  the 
knife  with  the  nerve  of  a  surgeon,  displaying  the  dis- 
eased and  healthy  organs  with  the  composure  of  a 
scientist.  It  is  a  skilful  microscopic  study,  but  if  we 
knew  nothing  of  Chatham  outside  this  record  we 
should  think  of  him  as  an  incomparably  effective 
actor,  and  should  miss  altogether  that  image  of  the 
victorious  Minister,  the  patriot  of  lofty  and  disinter- 
ested virtue,  which  was  impressed  on  the  national 
mind.  The  intimate  study  of  great  men  is  proverb- 
ially disillusionising,  but  it  is  never  certain  that  the 
intimate  view  is  the  right  one.  The  riddle  of  Chat- 
ham's character  is  the  contrast  between  the  unques- 
tionable  greatness    of    his    public    action    and   the 

366 


Personality  and  Historical  Position,     367 

disturbing  evidence  of  what  seemed  like  pose  and 
charlatanism.  The  very  suspicion  of  charlatanism 
seems  alien  to  true  greatness,  of  which  directness  and 
simplicity  are  the  most  certain  proofs.  Yet  Mr. 
Lecky,  who  credits  Chatham  with  great  disinterest- 
edness, great  courage,  great  patriotism,  united  with 
an  intense  love  of  liberty,  sums  up  his  criticism  in 
the  remark  :  "  Of  all  very  great  Englishmen,  he  is 
perhaps  the  one  in  whom  there  was  the  largest  ad- 
mixture of  the  qualities  of  the  charlatan."  The 
judgment  of  the  contemporary  is  more  severe  than 
that  of  the  historian.  "  Pitt  was  certainly  above 
avarice,  but  as  to  everything  else,  he  only  repressed 
his  desires  and  acted."  It  does  not  appear  *'  that  he 
went  beyond  what  was  necessary  to  satisfy  the  peo- 
ple, to  secure  his  wished-for  situation  ;  in  truth  it 
was  his  favourite  maxim  that  '  a  little  new  went  a 
long  way.'  "  "  He  did  not  cultivate  men,  because  he 
felt  it  an  incumbrance,  and  thought  he  could  act 
with  more  advantage  without  the  incumbrance  of  a 
party."  ''  He  passed  his  time  studying  words  and 
expression,  always  with  a  view  to  throw  the  respons- 
ibility of  every  measure  upon  some  other,  while  he 
held  a  high,  pompous,  unmeaning  language.  What 
took  much  from  his  character  was  that  he  was  always 
made-up  and  never  natural,  in  a  perpetual  state  of 
exertion,  incapable  of  friendship,  or  of  any  act  which 
tended  to  it,  and  constantly  upon  the  watch  and 
never  unbent."  "  He  knew  the  value  of  condescen- 
sion, and  reserved  himself  for  the  moment  when  he 
was  almost  certain  of  gaining  his  point  by  it,  till  then 
he  pranced  and  vapoured.  He  likewise  mixed  into  his 


368  William  Pitt, 


conduct  strict  honour  in  details,  which  I  have  often 
observed  deceives  many  men  in  great  affairs."  ^ 

Shelburne  was  the  ablest  and  most  faithful  of 
Chatham's  political  allies,  and  it  is  remarkable  that  he 
should  have  penned  this  rather  bitter  criticism  upon 
his  former  chief.  Possibly  the  recollection  of  interm- 
inable conversations  producing  no  clear  result  ob- 
literated the  memory  of  great  actions.  The  habit  of 
dilatory  declamation  was,  says  the  Abbe  Morellet,  the 
reproach  which  those  who  knew  him  intimately 
brought  against  Lord  Chatham. 

"  Lord  Shelburne  has  whispered  it  in  my  ear,  and  Mr. 
Franklin  has  told  me  a  fact  completely  justifying  this 
reproach.  After  several  fruitless  conferences  with  Lord 
Chatham  on  the  Stamp  Act,  he  asked  for  an  interview  in 
the  country  that  he  might  propose  certain  modifications 
in  the  Act  of  Parliament  Lord  Chatham  intended  to  in- 
troduce. .  .  .  Franklin  arrived  at  eight,  Lord  Chat- 
ham perorated  till  two  o'clock  without  comprehending 
or  concluding  anything,  and  sent  away  the  American 
deputy  son  papier  h  la  main  comme  il  etait  venu''  \ 

The  Abb6,  it  may  be  noted,  makes  the  same 
charge  against  both  Burke  and  Fox. 

There  was  much  in  Chatham's  conduct  to  invite 
such  strictures  as  Shelburne  makes.  His  own  ideas 
about  the  dignity  of  statesmen  were  strained  and 
theatrical ;  the  traditions  that  he  never  allowed  an 
under-secretary  to  sit  in  his  presence,  and  that  he 

*  Fitzmaurice's  Shelburne,  i.,  72. 

f  From  a  paper  on  English  Parties  in  1784,  MS.;  I  am  indebted 
to  Lord  Edmond  Fitzmaurice  for  this  extract. 


Personality  and  Historical  Position.     369 

always  conducted  public  business  in  full  dress,  are 
instances  of  these  ideas.  There  was  extravagant 
ostentation  in  his  mode  of  life,  in  his  patriarchal  re- 
tinue, and  in  that  celebrated  advertisement  of  a  Min- 
ister's coach  and  horses  for  sale,  which  enlivened  the 
town  after  his  resignation  in  1761.  He  was  alive  to 
anything  dramatic  in  his  own  situation,  and  never 
failed  to  make  the  best  of  his  part.  The  very  names 
he  bestows  on  himself  in  his  correspondence,  "  the 
Somersetshire  hermit,"  "your  village  friend,"  "a 
strange  new  creature,"  a  "  leader  whom  nobody  fol- 
lows," show  that  Chatham  was  one  of  those  who 
follow  with  sensibility  the  vicissitudes  of  their  own 
career,  and  watch  with  sympathy  their  own  action 
in  the  world  of  men.  It  was  the  grandiose  aspect  of 
things  which  possessed  his  mind  ;  a  gorgeous  accre- 
tion of  picturesque  imagery  surrounded  the  institu- 
tions of  the  State.  Marlborough,  it  is  said,  learned 
English  history  out  of  Shakespeare,  and  the  imagin- 
ative view,  the  ardent  sentiment  of  the  past,  im- 
pressed the  mind  of  Chatham.  The  book,  he  said, 
which  had  taught  him  most  was  Plutarch.  When 
he  spoke  in  Parliament  the  tradition  of  that  assem- 
bly, its  past  battles,  its  great  men,  its  share  in  the 
making  of  England,  were  never  forgotten  ;  when  he 
knelt  before  the  King,  and  burst  into  tears  over  the 
gracious  condescension  of  George  III.,  it  was  the 
majesty  of  an  ancient  throne  that  oppressed  and 
overpowered  his  mind.  This  dramatic  view  of  polit- 
ical life  makes  Chatham  unique  among  English  pub- 
lic men,  who  for  the  most  part  have  governed  their 
conduct  by  pedestrian  rules.    In  him  it  was  perfectly 


370  William  Pitt, 


sincere,  and  explained  both  his  extravagant  pride 
and  his  extravagant  humility.  If,  from  time  to  time, 
Chatham  may  have  been  led  into  extravagance  and 
even  absurdity  in  obedience  to  the  demands  of  van- 
ity and  an  exorbitant  pride,  if  he  was  imperious, 
unaccommodating,  and  flagrantly  contemptuous  of 
the  pride  and  vanity  of  other  men ;  if,  in  his  later 
years  he  secluded  himself,  as  it  were,  on  the  cloudy 
summit  of  Olympus,  whence  he  issued  edicts  and 
decrees,  these  faihngs  and  idiosyncrasies  were  more 
than  balanced  by  his  peculiar  virtues.  He  was 
strong  enough  to  carry  the  burden  of  heavier  faults. 
If  he  was  ambitious  it  was  for  England,  if  he  was 
despotic  it  was  in  the  cause  of  freedom  ;  modern 
degeneracy  had  not  touched  him,  he  was  of  strong 
will  and  of  definite  mind,  born  not  to  obey  but  to 
rule,  to  lead  a  nation,  to  mould  a  people,  to  act  in 
great  crises  as  the  instrument  of  fate.  His  person- 
ality was  not  distinctively  of  his  time  or  country  and 
it  has  often  been  remarked  that  in  force,  will,  and 
ambition  he  belonged  rather  to  the  Rome  of  Brutus 
than  to  the  England  of  Walpole  or  North.  The 
thunders  of  his  eloquence  might  have  shaken  the 
Forum,  his  invective  might  have  withered  another 
Catiline,  his  will  might  have  controlled  the  Roman 
legionaries.  He  belongs  indeed  to  that  small  class 
who  are  recognised  not  as  the  greatest  of  mankind, 
but  as  best  fitted  to  lead  and  control  in  emer- 
gencies, when  the  minds  of  men  are  perplexed  by 
change  or  fear,  and  to  accomplish  some  destined 
end.  "  The  more  a  man  is  versed  in  business,"  said 
Chathana   in   a   sentence  that  throws  light  on  his 


Personality  and  Historical  Position,     3  7 1 

character,  "■  the  more  he  sees  the  hand  of  Providence. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  Chance ;  it  is  the  unac- 
countable name  of  nothing."  That  consciousness  of 
Providence  Chatham  shared  with  every  other  whose 
action  has  shaped  the  affairs  of  men — with  Caesar  and 
Napoleon,  with  Alexander  and  Attila. 

It  is  never  possible  to  proportion  exactly  the  influ- 
ence of  any  one  man,  still  less  to  say  that  if  one  man 
had  not  lived  his  work  would  have  been  left  undone. 
Stronger  than  the  impact  of  any  single  will  is  the 
steady,  continuous,  and  cumulative  effect  of  social 
forces,  which  prepare  the  way  for  changes  and  de- 
velopments that  seem  sometimes  sudden  and  start- 
ling. The  results  of  the  war  which  was  conducted 
by  Chatham  and  by  Frederick  the  Great  are  properly 
to  be  traced  back  to  the  racial  characteristics  of 
England  and  Prussia,  but  without  the  genius  as 
Minister  and  the  genius  as  King,  these  results  could 
not  have  been  won.  The  true  measure  of  Chatham's 
capacity  as  a  War  Minister  is  in  the  comparison  of 
his  results  with  those  which  the  British  forces  ob- 
tained in  the  earlier  war  of  the  Austrian  Succession, 
and  in  the  later  American  war.  In  all  three  wars  the 
resources  at  the  disposal  of  Great  Britain  were  ap- 
proximately equal ;  in  the  Austrian  war  the  navy 
won  victories  but  made  no  conquests,  and  the  army 
was  of  little  value,  while  in  the  American  war  the 
command  of  the  sea  was  only  retrieved  by  Rodney's 
great  but  fortunate  victory  after  the  French  and 
Spanish  fleets  had  actually  commanded  the  Channel, 
and  the  disposition  of  both  the  naval  and  military 
forces  in  America  made  the  colonial  triumph  a  more 


372  William  Pitt. 


easy  affair  than  it  should  have  been.  Such  compar- 
isons cannot  be  exact,  but  they  at  least  prove  the 
truth  of  which  Chatham's  Ministry  is  perhaps  the 
most  striking  example  in  all  history,  that  in  the  con- 
duct of  great  wars  the  Minister  in  command  is  almost 
as  important  as  the  bravery  of  troops  and  the  effi- 
ciency of  arms.  As  without  Bismarck  there  might 
have  been  no  entry  into  Paris,  so  without  Chatham 
there  might  have  been  no  fall  of  Quebec./  The  bur- 
den of  the  war  was  exclusively  borne  by  Chatham  ; 
it  was~directed  not  by  a  council,  but  by  him  alone, 
and  the  most  minute  details  as  well  as  the  general 
plans  were  settled  by  him.  It  was  such  a  war  as  the 
history  of  nations  could  not  parallel  in  the  extent  of 
its  area  and  the  variety  of  its  operations.  To  the 
necessary  qualities  of  method,  exactness  and  punct- 
uality in  administration,  the  Minister  added  the 
power  of  inspiring  heroism,  of  conceiving  great 
plans,  of  steeling  and  indurating  the  national  will. 
Nor  was  the  restraint  of  parsimony,  a  dangerous 
virtue  when  great  schemes  are  pending,  allowed  to 
narrow  the  foundations  of  an  Empire.  A  contemp- 
orary said  that  England  should  be  grateful  to  Chat- 
ham, since  she  owed  him  at  least  seventy  millions  of 
the  National  Debt,  and  it  is  true  that  he  cared  little 
about  ways  and  means  ;  he  knew  that  millions  could 
be  raised,  and  that  they  would  be  well  spent,  and  he 
felt  a  curious  exultation  in  the  thought  that  he  was 
spending  more  profusely  than  any  Englishman  of  the 
past.  Those  who  read  again  the  debates  of  1761 
and  1762  will  find  that  this  expenditure  was  the 
chief  topic  among  those  whose  main  business  and 


Personality  and  Historical  Position.     373 

delight  was  to  depreciate  the  fame  of  the  ex-Minis- 
ter.  There  exists  for  example  a  plausible  discourse 
by  Rigby,  in  which  he  argued  that  the  urgent  neces- 
sities of  national  economy  demanded  that  England 
should  not  keep  her  conquests.*  The  course  of  time 
has  made  the  defence  of  Chatham's  expenditure  a 
work  of  supererogation  ;  the  destruction  of  the  rival 
power  in  India  and  America  has  proved  no  niggardly 
return  to  an  investment  of  seventy  millions. 

The  Seven  Years*  War  was  the  central  and  decisive 
campaign  in  the  long  war  between  England  and 
France  which  began  under  William  III.,  and  ended 
under  Wellington.  The  dominant  consideration  un- 
derlying this  long  rivalry  was  a  consideration  of  trade; 
men  fought  for  colonial  expansion  and  for  command 
of  the  sea  because  on  these  depended  a  great  com- 
merce. Of  all  the  statesmen  who  have  directed  the 
destinies  of  England,  who  have  formed  the  ruling 
political  ideas  of  the  nation,  from  Burleigh  and  Crom- 
well downwards,  no  one  realised  this  more  clearly 
than  Chatham.  "  England  fighting  for  her  trade," 
said  he,  "  is  fighting  in  the  last  ditch."  Before  this 
war  England  was  one  of  the  three  great  European 
Powers  ;  her  supremacy  at  sea  was  acknowledged,  but 
in  America  and  the  West  Indies  her  possessions  were 
not  greater  than  those  of  France,  while  in  India  the 
French  power  was  greater.  At  the  close  of  the  war 
the  English  naval  power  had  been  so  demonstrated 
that  there  was  a  universal  jealousy  and  alarm  in 
Europe  comparable  to  that  created  by  the  threaten- 
ing supremacy  of  Louis  XIV.     France  in  America 

*  Walpole,  Memoirs  of  George  I  11.^  i.,  io6. 


374  William  PitL 


had  been  narrowed  into  Louisiana  and  two  small 
shelters  for  the  fishermen  off  Newfoundland  ;  in  the 
West  Indies  she  had  been  allowed  to  retain  both 
Guadaloupe  and  Martinique ;  in  India  the  actual 
terms  of  the  peace  were  of  less  importance  than  the 
fact  that  France  acknowledged  herself  beaten  in 
Bengal,  and  by  her  treatment  of  Lally,  her  general  in 
the  Carnatic,  gave  evidence  that  the  career  of  the 
Indian  adventurer  was  no  stepping-stone  to  favour 
in  Paris.  The  French  retained  indeed,  and  still  re- 
tain, that  square  foot  of  territory  which  Choiseul 
besought  Montcalm  to  hold  in  Canada,  and  so  long 
as  they  possessed  Mauritius  no  opportunity  of  harass- 
ing the  English  power  in  India  was  lost,  but  the  ver- 
dict of  Chatham's  war  has  never  been  reversed. 
Even  the  Titanic  genius  of  Napoleon,  whose  master 
ambition  it  was  to  do  for  France  against  England 
what  Chatham  had  done  for  England  against  France, 
failed  irretrievably  to  redress  the  balance.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  any  war  has  produced  greater  re- 
sults for  the  human  race.  The  immediate  result  was 
to  make  England  the  most  powerful  of  nations,  and 
although  the  great  schism  after  the  American  revolt 
diminished  her  power,  it  yet  stands  true  that  the 
British  people  possess  two  Empires  which  were  won 
between  1756  and  1763.  It  is  impossible  to  calcu- 
late the  influence  on  the  character  of  the  race  wrought 
by  the  rule  of  India  ;  the  commerce  and  wealth  it 
ensures  is  the  least  of  its  benefits,  the  greatest  is  per- 
haps the  practice  in  the  art  of  disinterested  govern- 
ment, the  responsible  treatment  of  complicated 
problems,  the  habit  at  once  of  obedience  and  com- 


Personality  and  Historical  Position.     375 

mand.  The  Indian  Empire  is  as  much  a  military 
despotism  as  any  of  the  subject  provinces  of  Rome, 
but  it  is  administered  in  the  interests  of  those  who 
have  no  voice  in  the  decision  of  its  affairs.  It  is  an 
absolutism  tempered  by  the  principles  of  Bentham. 
The  transference  of  Canada  from  France  to  England 
was  in  some  aspects  an  even  more  remarkable  result 
of  the  war ;  the  French  had  been  settled  there  for  a 
century  and  a  half,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  the  thought 
of  conquering  their  whole  dominion  had  been  se- 
riously entertained  by  any  statesman  however 
sanguine.  It  is  often  said  that  the  first  result  of  de- 
stroying the  French  power  on  the  St.  Lawrence  was 
to  invite  the  independence  of  the  British  colonies. 
This  theory  overlooks  the  fact  that  when  the  British 
colonies  were  fighting  for  independence,  Canada 
was  actually  in  the  hands  of  the  mother  country, 
and  therefore  hostile,  whereas  if  it  had  still  been 
French  it  would  have  been  an  ally.  The  colonists 
could  not  have  defeated  the  French  without  English 
aid,  and  so  long  as  they  feared  French  encroachment 
they  needed  the  naval  protection  which  England 
gave,  but  if  after  the  war  Canada  had  remained 
French,  it  is  improbable  that  the  Canadians  would 
have  assisted  the  English  Government  in  a  quarrel, 
and  even  if  Canada  were  hostile,  a  hostile  French 
Canada  was  no  more  to  be  feared  by  the  Americans 
than  a  hostile  British  Canada.  Nevertheless  the 
British  conquest  of  Canada  has  deeply  affected  the 
character  and  development  of  the  American  Repub- 
lic; if  a  French  dominion  had  existed  across  the  St. 
Lawrence,    the   United  States   could   hardly   have 


376  William  Pill. 


maintained  so  long  that  abstinence  from  European 
complications  which  has  encouraged  the  emigration 
of  men  from  all  the  old  States  and  has  made  its 
population  the  most  cosmopolitan  in  the  world. 
Moreover,  that  ideal  of  policy  which  is  called  the 
Monroe  Doctrine,  embodying  as  it  does  an  extensive 
and  peculiar  claim  by  the  United  States  to  preserve 
the  New  World  from  further  encroachments  by  the 
Old,  could  never  have  been  suggested  by  an  English 
statesman,  as  it  was,  and  would  have  proved  infinitely 
more  difficult  of  application,  if  a  distinctively  foreign 
Power  had  ruled  the  great  northern  dominion.  The 
existence  side  by  side  of  a  British  colony  and  a 
Republic  separated  from  Britain,  has  been  in  the  past 
a  cause  of  friction,  in  the  future  it  is  still  possible 
that  it  may  be  a  cause  of  strife,  but  more  .probably 
the  common  sentiments  of  race  will  survive  even  the 
dividing  memories  of  civil  war.  The  English-speak- 
ing races  possess  in  North  America  a  sphere  of 
influence  and  action  that  ensures  for  them  a  predomi- 
nance among  mankind,  far  more  certain  because  the 
continent,  however  mixed  its  population,  is  governed 
from  north  to  south  on  those  principles  of  freedom, 
order,  and  progress,  which  won  their  way  in  the 
England  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

As  in  India  and  America  so  in  Europe,  the  war 
marked  an  era  of  incalculable  importance.  If  the 
generalship  of  Ferdinand  and  the  armies  of  Fred- 
erick assisted  the  conquest  of  Canada,  the  alliance  of 
England  under  Pitt  saved  Prussia  from  annihilation. 
Not  a  single  hamlet  changed  its  allegiance  as  a 
result  of  all  the  battles  that  were  fought,  but  Prussia's 


Personality  and  Historical  Position.     377 

heroic  struggle  paved  the  way  for  its  great  place 
among  the  nations.  It  had  survived  the  attack  of 
an  unexampled  coalition  because  the  most  powerful 
member  of  that  coalition  was  engaged,  on  sea  and 
land  by  the  forces  of  Great  Britain.  iThe  German 
race  found  in  Prussia  a  new  centre  of  leadership  and 
allegiance,  and  the  House  of  Austria  had  found  an 
unconquerable  rival.  But  it  was  France  whose  posi- 
tion was  chiefly  affected  by  the  war.  The  loss  of 
India  and  Canada  by  France  ruined  the  far-seeing 
plans  of  Colbert ;  it  transferred  to  England  ad- 
vantages the  full  extent  of  which  could  not  then  be 
appreciated.  When  the  discoveries  of  science  annihi- 
lated distance,  and  by  multiplying  the  value  of  colo- 
nies revolutionised  the  policy  of  nations,  it  was  the 
fortune  of  England  already  to  possess  an  Empire. 
The  wars  of  the  eighteenth  century  had  provided  a 
solution  of  the  problems  of  the  following  years  ;  had 
found  new  lands  for  an  overflowing  population,  new 
markets  for  commerce,  and  new  incentives  against 
national  exhaustion.  Not  until  the  insatiate  rivalry 
of  the  last  fifty  years  began  could  the  gains  of  Eng- 
land and  losses  of  France  in  the  Seven  Years*  War 
be  fully  measured. 

Thus,  as  the  history  of  mankind  unfolds,  the  inter- 
national results  of  that  administration  by  which  Pitt 
raised  England  from  despair  to  exaltation  are  seen 
to  be  ever  greater.  That  is  his  certain  title  to  un- 
dying fame.  His  influence  in  the  sphere  of  domes- 
tic politics  cannot  be  found  in  definite  achievements, 
but  must  be  sought  rather  in  the  vaguer  region  of 
sentiment  and  opinion.     He  was  the  very  opposite 


378  William  Pitt, 


of  a  scientific  statesman  ;  his  knowledge  was  not 
exact  or  comprehensive,  but  was  confined  to  a  few 
great  principles,  to  what  he  called  the  Bible  of  Eng- 
lish politics,  which  he  reverenced  as  the  necessary 
and  sufficient  charter  of  faith.  Details  were  matters 
of  business  which  he  grasped  clearly  enough  when 
in  office,  or  when  expounding  any  specific  scheme, 
but  his  attention  was  given  first  to  the  principles 
involved.  This  was  a  period  when  problems  of  in- 
ternal government  were  less  agitated  than  problems 
of  national  policy,  when  the  industrial  revolution 
with  its  inevitable  accompaniment  of  a  State  organ- 
ised on  democratic  lines  was  not  accomplished. 
Chatham  is  not  to  be  credited  with  any  prophetic 
foresight  into  the  future ;  his  whole  nature  was  made 
for  the  high  duty  of  leading  the  nation  in  times  of 
peril,  not  for  the  patient  and  careful  handling  of 
comphcated  problems.  But  his  career,  with  its  sov- 
ereignty over  the  whole  people,  was  a  preparation  for 
the  democratic  revolution.  He  welded  together  the 
United  Kingdom,  evoking  the  loyalty  of  Scotland, 
seeking  the  reconciliation  of  Ireland,  and  raised  so 
high  the  pride  and  spirit  of  nationality  that  the  deep 
wounds  inflicted  by  the  Stuart  troubles  were  at  last 
healed.  Cromwell  had  been  to  many  a  hated 
usurper,  the  glories  of  Marlborough  had  been 
exploited  in  the  interests  of  faction,  Walpole  had  re- 
garded the  Whig  party  as  the  nation,  but  under  Pitt 
England  forgot  her  divisions.  "  He  was  a  Minister 
given  by  the  people  to  the  King,"  and  there  was 
magic  in  that  fact.  In  the  midst  of  a  period  when 
what  Disraeli  called  the  Venetian  Constitution  was 


Personality  and  Historical  Position.     3  79 

at  its  zenith,  when  government  was  the  perquisite  of 
a  Teutonic  monarch,  an  aristocratic  junto,  and  a 
corrupt  Parliament,  there  appears  this  dazzling  and 
supreme  career  of  one  who  affronted  venal  Parlia- 
mentarians by  his  contemptuous  honesty,  who  was 
separated  by  a  great  gulf  from  the  aristocrats  who 
mouthed  the  commonplaces  of  civil  and  rehgious 
liberty  while  they  ruled  a  kingdom  in  the  interests 
of  a  party,  a  politician  who  had  "  never  read  Wicque- 
fort,"  never  visited  Lady  Yarmouth  till  he  was  fifty, 
never  hesitated  to  express  an  unflattering  view  of 
Herrenhausen  and  German  Electors.  If  Pitt  had 
done  no  more  than  grasp  power  there  would  be 
reason  to  remember  a  life  that  with  no  adventitious 
advantage  ended  at  so  great  an  elevation.  What 
forces  could  he  draw  upon  ?  The  days  of  a  press 
that  could  focus  attention  upon  a  brilliant  person- 
ality were  not  yet  come  ;  the  era  of  party  organisa- 
tion, of  a  public  opinion  guided  and  informed  by 
widespread  associations,  had  not  dawned.  It  is 
comparatively  easy  for  a  man  of  force  and  persist- 
ency to  capture  the  machine,  but  in  Pitt's  day  the 
machine  was  not  invented.  It  was  not  an  age  in 
which  careers  were  open  to  talent,  but  genius  made 
itself  felt ;  it  was  not  a  revolutionary  period  when 
leaders  were  urgently  sought,  but  Pitt's  voice  pene- 
trated the  closed  door  of  Parliament  and  reached  the 
ears  of  the  people. 

By  appealing  to  the  people,  by  incarnating  in 
himself  their  power,  and  by  making  that  power  su- 
preme, Chatham  had  disturbed  the  equipoise  of 
the  aristocratic  system  by  introducing  a  new  and 


380  William  Pitt. 


ultimately  paramount  force.  He  was  gifted  with  the 
qualities  of  popular  leadership  ;  an  instinctive  sym- 
pathy with  national  feeling — that  national  feeling 
which  induces  in  many  men  only  an  obstinate  re- 
pugnance— a  definite  mind,  a  strong  will,  an  im- 
perious nature,  a  fearless  invective,  an  oratory  that 
embellished  his  profound  and  passionate  patriotism. 
Although  the  debates  in  Parliament  were  only 
roughly  reported,  it  is  easy  to  understand  how  the 
pith  of  his  speeches  would  be  known  throughout  the 
nation ;  often  we  find  that  the  sentiment  of  his 
great  orations  is  expressed  in  some  stirring  phrase 
such  as  could  be  remembered  by  the  people.  The 
character  of  his  oratory  does  not  lend  itself  to  liter- 
ary disquisition  ;  it  was  born  in  the  hour  of  strenuous 
debate,  as  fire  from  iron,  and  less  than  any  other 
oratory  that  is  remembered  does  it  smell  of  the 
lamp.  An  invective  unequalled  among  the  moderns, 
an  invective  that  struck  down  the  proudest  of  his 
contemporaries,  a  scorn  that  withered,  a  passion 
that  scorched — even  to-day  the  effect  and  force  of 
these  powers  are  not  vanished  from  the  pages  which 
contain  his  words.  That  Chatham  practised  himself 
in  that  art  of  which  he  was  so  consummate  a  master 
is  probable :  he  would  not  look  on  a  bad  print  lest 
it  should  corrupt  his  taste ;  he  remembered  Demos- 
thenes, and  doubtless,  as  a  sensible  man,  he  studied 
the  temper  of  his  audience  and  knew  how  to  produce 
his  effects.  But  his  prepared  orations  were,  com- 
paratively speaking,  failures,  and  it  was  only  when 
his  blood  was  stirred,  when  his  scorn  or  anger  was 
roused,  when  art  was  forgotten  and  nature  spoke, 


Personality  and  Historical  Position,     38 1 

that  the  true  extent  of  his  powers  was  displayed  and 
his  Promethean  eloquence  thrilled  and  subjugated 
all  who  heard.  "  When  I  am  on  my  feet  I  speak 
everything  that  is  in  my  mind,"  he  said.  Others 
have  surpassed  him  in  the  forensic  art  of  pleading, 
in  the  rhetorical  art,  and  in  literary  graces,  but  Chat- 
ham, speaking  everything  that  was  in  his  mind,  was 
the  greatest  antagonist  in  debate  the  British  Parlia- 
ment has  known. 

While  the  persuasive  part  of  his  speech  was  a 
kind  of  consummate  conversation,  expressed  in  sent- 
ences clear,  simple,  forceful,  of  an  admirable  rhythm, 
there  were  moments  of  sublimity  and  inspiration 
such  as  no  other  English  orator  has  known,  daring 
flights  of  imagination  that  held  his  audience  with 
suspended  breath.  "  His  words,"  said  Lyttleton, 
**  have  sometimes  frozen  my  young  blood  into  stag- 
nation, and  sometimes  have  made  it  pace  in  such  a 
hurry  through  my  veins  that  I  could  scarce  support 
it."  Grattan  said  finely,  **  Great  subjects,  great  em- 
pires, great  characters,  effulgent  ideas,  and  classical 
illustrations,  formed  the  material  of  his  speeches.*' 
A  natural  loftiness  of  mind  was  his  most  character- 
istic virtue  ;  it  was  at  times  clouded  over  by  passion 
and  rivalry,  but  he  loved  best  the  contemplation  of 
serious  and  noble  things.  It  is  clear  from  the  de- 
tached sentences  in  his  handwriting  found  among 
his  papers  that  religion  was  to  him  a  matter  not 
merely  of  outward  observance  but  of  his  innermost 
thought.*  There  were  no  doubt  histrionic  elements 
in  his  nature,  but  a  profound  sincerity  was  the  true 

^Chatham  Correspondence^  iv.,  App.  3. 


382  William  Pitt. 


spring  of  his  actions.  He  would  have  been  still 
greater  if  all  his  conduct  had  been  marked  by  per- 
fect simplicity,  but  though  his  motives  may  have 
been  obscured  so  that  even  Burke  misunderstood 
them,  they  were  of  a  noble  kind.  It  was  with  genu- 
ine relief,  if  with  an  ostentation  of  Stoical  content, 
that  he  laid  his  greatness  by  and  sought  relief  and 
rest  in  a  home  where  he  could  put  his  armour  on 
one  side  and  teach  his  children  to  love  God  and 
their  country  ;  it  was  by  a  supreme  effort  against  the 
exhaustion  of  age  and  infirmity  that  he  returned 
to  warn  his  country  against  the  awful  destiny  of 
separation. 

Two  phrases  of  his  own  best  illustrate  his  character 
and  his  career.  He  speaks  of  that  sense  of  honour 
which  "  makes  ambition  virtue,"  and  he  writes  of 
those  "  who,  wherever  they  are,  carry  their  country 
along  with  them  in  their  breast.  I  mean  those  feel- 
ings for  its  general  honour,  and  those  large  and  com- 
prehensive sentiments  for  the  common  happiness  of 
the  whole,  which  everywhere,  and  more  particularly 
in  our  island,  constitute  alone  just  patriotism." 
Chatham,  dying  in  the  midst  of  the  Civil  War  he 
had  tried  to  avert,  is  the  last  of  those  great  men 
whom  England  and  America  can  both  claim  ;  to 
both  States  he  rendered  signal  service,  and  not  the 
least  part  of  that  service  is  the  memory  of  a  nature 
moulded  in  the  very  form  of  honour,  an  eloquence 
never  suborned  to  mean  causes,  a  lover  of  his  nation 
who  immeasurably  strengthened  her  power  and 
elevated  the  ideals  of  her  pubHc  life. 


APPENDIX. 

THE     FAMILY     COMPACT    OF    1761. 

THE  one  "  historical  mystery  "  in  connection  with 
Lord  Chatham  is  the  question  how  far  he  knew 
the  terms  of  the  secret  treaty  arranged  between 
France  and  Spain  in  August,  1761,  at  the  time  of  his 
resignation  in  October,  1761.  There  is  a  tradition  that 
he  had  secret  information,  and  imparted  that  informa- 
tion to  the  Cabinet.  An  article  in  the  Quarterly  Review^ 
October,  1899,  suggests  that  this  information  was  re- 
ceived through  Louis  Dutens,  secretary  to  the  British 
embassy  at  Naples,  where  knowledge  of  Spanish  plans 
might  very  probably  be  obtained.  A  copy  of  the  treaty 
in  the  Newcastle  papers  is  said,  by  the  writer  of  this  ar- 
ticle, to  bear  marks  of  having  passed  through  Pitt's 
office  in  Cleveland  Row.  I  am  unable  to  judge  the 
probability  of  the  last  statement,  but  from  other  evid- 
ence I  find  it  difficult  to  believe  that  Pitt  placed  before 
the  Cabinet  any  exact  information  concerning  the  treaty. 
If  he  possessed  the  information  himself,  he  must  surely 
have  imparted  it  to  his  colleagues.  In  published  me- 
moirs there  is  little  evidence,  but  the  Newcastle  Papers 
contain  much  that  bears  directly  and  indirectly  upon 
the   question.      It   was   known   that   a  treaty   between 

383 


3S4  William  Pill. 


France  and  Spain  existed,  but  not  that  a  breach  with 
Great  Britain  and  the  invasion  of  Portugal  were  con- 
templated. 

In  his  memorandum  on  the  Cabinet  of  September  18, 
1761,  Newcastle  mentions  "Intercepted  letters  from 
Fuentes  and  Grimaldi,"  and  "  The  Convention  signed  the 
15th  of  August  only."  *  But  that  nothing  more  than 
the  probability  of  an  intimate  union  between  France  and 
Spain  had  been  disclosed  is  clear  from  the  questions 
Hardwicke  invites  Newcastle  to  put  to  Stanley  in  his 
letter  of  September  30th.  f  At  the  next  Cabinet  of  Oc- 
tober 2d,  Newcastle  says  that  Pitt  referred  to  "  the 
papers  he  had  in  his  bag  (meaning  my  Lord  Bristol's  let- 
ter and  Mr.  Wall's  paper). "J  This  must  have  been 
Bristol's  letter  of  August  31st,  which  contained  the  ac- 
counts of  Wall's  admission  that  France  had  "  spontane- 
ously offered  to  unite  her  forces  with  those  of  Spain  to 
prevent  English  encroachments  in  America  on  Spanish 
territory."  Pitt  may  have  used  this  admission  as  an  ar- 
gument that  Spain  meant  war,  but  if  he  had  possessed 
secret  information  would  he  not  have  lain  other  papers 
before  the  Cabinet?  On  October  13th,  Hardwicke  tells 
Newcastle  that  he  has  seen  Pitt.  "  I  observed  that  he 
did  not  assert  the  resolution  of  Spain  to  declare  war 
against  us  nearly  so  strong  as  he  did  at  the  Council  ; 
but  put  it  upon  their  secret  union  with  France,  and  that 
they  would  assist  France  with  money  underhand."  § 
On  October  20th,  Newcastle  has  seen  the  Spanish  ambas- 
sador :  ''  I  asked  him  whether  they  intended  to  break 
with  us.  He  did  not  directly  answer  the  question,  but 
talked   as  if  that  could  not  be  their  intention  as  their 


*Add.  MSS.  32928,  f.  228. 

\  Ibid.,  i.  440.        X  Ibid.,  32929,  f.  18.       %Ibid.,  32929,  f.  227. 


Appendix,  385 


conduct  had  showed,  notwithstanding  their  Family 
Treaty  of  1743,  which,  he  said,  the  last  time  I  saw  him, 
contained  all  the  stipulations  in  this  treaty  with  regard 
to  their  reciprocal  engagements."  *  On  December  ist 
the  Comte  de  Mello,  Portuguese  ambassador  to  the 
Court  of  St.  James's,  communicated  the  news  that 
France,  Spain,  and  Naples  had  made  a  secret  treaty,  to  /J 
which  they  demanded  Portugal's  accession,  with  the  in-  ^ 
tention  of  closing  the  ports  of  the  four  nations  against 
Great  Britain.  This  was  of  course  the  secret  design 
which  Pitt  dreaded,  but  it  is  placed  beyond  doubt  that 
he  did  not  communicate  intelligence  of  it  to  his  col- 
leagues when  we  read  Newcastle's  comment  upon  this 
disclosure.  "  Our  affairs  with  Spain  seem  bad.  /  think 
Mello' s  account  cant  be  true''  f 

The  truth  seems  to  be  that,  without  special  or  secret 
knowledge,  Pitt  judged  the  future  of  Spanish  policy  bet- 
ter than  his  colleagues.  There  were  indications  visible 
to  all  the  Ministers  that  France  and  Spain  were  united. 
Pitt  declared  that  this  meant  war  ;  his  colleagues  would 
not  be  convinced.  When  the  rupture  had  come,  Hard- 
wicke  made  the  following  comment :  "  I  am  now  con- 
vinced that  the  intercepted  letter  in  the  summer  from 
Choiseul  to  D'Avrincourt  in  cypher,  wherein  mention 
was  made  of  training  on  the  negotiations  between  Eng- 
land and  France  till  the  latter  end  of  September,  when 
the  flota  should  be  arrived,  deserved  more  weight  to  be 
laid  upon  it  than  we  were  willing  to  allow  it  at  that 
time."  X  This  letter  from  Choiseul  explains  Pitt's  eager- 
ness to  declare  war  on  Spain  before  the  flota  of  silver 
ships  should  arrive. 


*  Add.  MSS.  32929,  f.  406. 

f  Ibid.,  32931.  f.  425.  X  I^ci">  32932,  f.  367. 


INDEX. 


Aix-la-Chapelle, Treaty  of  (1748), 

43 
America,  French  and  English  in, 
65-69 ;    seven   years'    war   in, 
114-116,     128-133,     139-145, 
159;  Revolution  in,  219-233, 
243-265,  297-300,  333-365 
Anson,  Admiral  Lord,  loi,  328 
Augusta,     wife    of     Frederick, 
Prince  of  Wales,  49,  72,  89, 
164 

B 

Barre,  Colonel,  231,  264 
Beckford,    Ardaman,    154,   204, 

250 
Bedford,  John,  fourth  Duke  of, 

44,    94,    195,    215,    234,    289, 

291,  302,  305,  336 
Bolingbroke,  Lord,  9,  32,  34 
Boscawen,    Admiral,    68,    129- 

131,  148 
Braddock,  General,  68 
Burke,  Edmund,   185,  237,   265, 

284,  306,  310,  325,  333,  351 
Bussy,  de,  168 
Bute,  Lord,    89,   164,   182,  187, 

190,  194,  208,  234,   273,  279, 

289,  318,  363 
Byng,  Admiral,  86,  95 

C 

Camden,  Lord,  see  Pratt 
Carteret,  afterward  Earl   Gran- 
ville, 8,  19,  24,  28,  37,  92,  183, 
196,  328 


Catherine  IL  of  Russia,  277 
Choiseul,  Due  de,  138,  145,  157, 

167,  197,  275,  280,  328 
Clive,   Robert,   Lord,   116,  126, 

160 
"  Cobham  Cousinhood,"  9, 10, 43 
Cobham,  Lord,  11,  42 
Conway,  Mr.,  231,  235,  239,  249, 

271,  282 
Coote,  Sir  Eyre,  162 
Corsica,  French  purchase  of,  327 
Cumberland,  Duke  of,  42,  49,  99, 

118,  122,  198,  202,  234,  249 


Dashwood,  Sir  Francis,  166,  209 
Delaney,  Daniel,  260 
Devonshire,      William,      fourth 

Duke  of,    93,   100,    183,   198, 

203,  213 
Doddington,     Bubb,    afterward 

Lord  Melcombe,  32 


Egremont,  Lord,  188,  211 
Elizabeth,  Czarina  of  Russia,  84, 
88,  103,  157,  167 


Family  Compact,  16,  17,  82,  383 
Ferdinand,  Prince,  ill,  123,  134, 

149.  155,  159 

Fontenoy,  battle  of,  35 

Fox,  Henry,  afterward  Lord 
Holland,  5,  44,  45,  51,  59,  64, 
72,  90,  93,  100,  198,  204 


387 


388 


Index, 


Franklin,  Benjamin,  230,  246, 
338,  345,  348,  352,  368 

Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales,  9, 
13,  20,  43,  49 

Frederick  II.,  King  of  Prussia, 
30,  35,  83,  88,  98,  103,  117, 
123,  136,  151,  159,194,  278 


Guadaloupe,  145 

George  II.,  24,  37,  162 

George  III.,  163,  182,  190,  192, 
213,  263,  267,  274,  291,  303, 
306,  312,  319,  334,  344,  353, 

363 

Gibraltar,  120 

Glover,  Richard,  19,  20 

Goree,  136,  196 

Grafton,  Duke  of,  233,  236,  239, 
249,  262,  270,  282,  300,  305, 
311,  336 

Grenville,  George,  10,  19,  42,  87, 
94,  114,  187,  198,  209,  213, 
219,  227,  234,  249,  252,  255, 
273,  297,  305,  310 

Grenville,  Lady  Hester,  after- 
ward Countess  of  Chatham, 
58,  185 

H 

Halifax,  Lord,  211 

Hardwicke,  Lord,  23,  55,  70,  90, 
182,  202,  213,  266 

Hawke,  Admiral  Lord,  148,  152 

Highlanders,  Scottish,  enlist- 
ment of,  97 

Holderness,  Lord,  94,  99,  100, 
166 

I 

India,  French  and  English  in, 
65  ;  Seven  Years'  War  in,  116, 
117,  160-162  ;  Government  of, 
280-283 

Ireland,  Government  of,  283-285 


Jacobite  rising,  35-37 


"Jenkins's  Ear,"  war  of,  7,  15 
Johnson,  Samuel,    i8,  232,   237, 
330 


K 


Kaunitz,  70,  81,  84,  105 
Keene,  Sir  Benjamin,  207 
Kloster-Severn,   Convention  of, 
118-120 


Lally,  161 

Legge,  Henry,  54,  70,  73,  75,  94, 

166 
"  Leicester  Home  Party,"  13,  50, 

72 
Lexington,  battle  of,  353 
Louis  XV.,  King  of  France,  84, 

103 
Louisburg,  130 
Lyttleton,  George,   Lord,   5,  10, 

12,  19,  54,  56,  61,  75,  99,  214, 

236 


M 


Mansfield,  Lord,  see  Murray 
Maria  Theresa,  Queen  of  Hun- 
gary,   29,  34,  83,  88,  103,  167 
Marlborough,    Sarah,     Duchess 

of,  33 
Militia,  English,  78,  97 
Minden,  battle  of,  149 
Mitchell,  Sir  Andrew,  102 
Montcalm,  Marquis  de,  88,  114, 

131,  140 
Morellet,  I'Abbe,  368 
Murray,  afterward  Lord  Mans- 
field, 26,  50,  61,  89,  183,  204, 
249,  306,  314,  318,  363 


N 


Newcastle,  Holies,  Duke  of,  23, 
39,  47,  55,  62,  70,  86,  89,  100, 
112,  156,  182,  189,  202,  213, 
236,  242 

North,  Lord,  305,  312,  340,  359 


Index, 


389 


Pelham,  Henry,  23,  30,  42,  47 

Pitt,  Governor,  1-4 

Pitt,  Robert,  1-4 

Pitt,  William,  first  Earl  of  Chat- 
ham, birth  and  descent,  1-4  ; 
education,  4-5  ;  enters  army 
and  House  of  Commons,  6  ; 
his  maiden  speech,  11  ;  dis- 
missed from  the  army,  n;  op- 
position to  Walpole,  12-14  ; 
attitude  on  Spanish  war  and 
the  Family  Compact,  13-18  ; 
his  conduct  after  the  fall  of 
Walpole,  19-23  ;  his  attacks 
upon  Carteret  and  the  Hano- 
verians, 30-32  ;  his  accommo- 
dation with  the  Pelhams,  33  ; 
legacy  from  the  Duchess  of 
Marlborough,  33  ;  he  becomes 
Paymaster-General,  37-41 ;  re- 
lation with  the  Grenvilles, 
42-43  ;  rivalry  with  Fox,  44  ; 
his  opinions  on  ecclesiastical 
policy,  46  ;  his  claims  to  lead- 
ing the  Commons  on  Pelham's 
death,  47-51  ;  his  advice  to 
"  the  Brotherhood,"  53  ;  his 
despair  of  promotion,  54-55  ; 
his  marriage,  58  ;  his  opposi- 
tion to  Newcastle,  60-64 ;  to 
Hessian  and  Russian  subsi- 
dies, 70-72  ;  his  attack  on  the 
union  of  Newcastle  and  Fox, 
74  ;  dismissed  from  office,  75  ; 
he  supports  a  national  militia, 
78-80  ;  he  opposes  Anglo- 
Prussian  alliance,  84  ;  he  de- 
clines office  under  Newcastle, 
90-93  ;  he  forms  a  Ministry 
with  the  Duke  of  Devonshire, 
93-95  ;  he  attempts  to  save 
Byng,  95-97  ;  his  war  meas- 
ures, 97 ;  his  relations  with 
the  Tories,  99  ;  dismissed  from 
office,  100  ;  he  unites  with 
Newcastle,  loi  ;  his  character 
as  War  Minister,  108-112  ;  his 
action   in  the  Kloster-Severn 


convention,  119-120;  he  offers 
Gibraltar  to  Spain,  120-122  ; 
appoints  Prince  Ferdinand  to 
command  the  Hanover  army, 
124;  his  plans  for  1758,  127; 
adopts  the  German  war  as  part 
of  his  scheme,  135  ;  his  plans 
for  1759,  139  I  scheme  of  de- 
fence against  French  invasion, 
147  ;  his  speech  in  November, 
I759>  154;  his  suspicion  of 
Spanish  policy,  157  ;  his  plans 
for  1760,  159  ;  his  position  on 
the  death  of  George  II.,  162- 
165  ;  his  negotiations  for  peace 
with  France,  167-179  ;  his 
advice  of  war  against  Spain, 
180  ;  his  speech  to  the  Cabi- 
net, 184  ;  resignation,  185  ; 
supports  Ministers  in  war 
against  Spain,  187-190 ;  his 
speech  on  the  peace  of  Paris, 
200-208  ;  negotiations  with 
Bute,  212-215  ;  on  the  case  of 
Wilkes  and  general  warrants, 
216-219 ;  receives  two  legacies, 
233  ;  negotiations  with  the 
Whigs  (May,  1765),  234-236; 
with  the  Rockingham  Minis- 
try, 241-243  ;  his  American 
policy,  244,  250 ;  he  declines 
union  with  Rockingham,  250, 
263,  265  ;  his  speech  against 
the  Stamp  Act,  252-262  ;  op- 
poses the  Declaratory  Act, 
265  ;    forms  a  new    Ministry, 

268  ;     breach   with    Temple, 

269  ;  with  Rockingham,  271  ; 
is  created  Earl  of  Chatham, 
273  ;  attempts  an  alliance  with 
Russia  and  Prussia  against 
France,  275-280  ;  his  views  on 
the  government  of  India,  280- 
282  ;  on  Ireland,  283-285  ;  his 
first  speech  in  the  House  of- 
Lords,  286 ;  his  unfortunate 
negotiations  with  influential 
politicians,  288-293 ;  his  ill- 
ness ends  his  personal  share 
in  the  government,  294-295  ; 


390 


Index, 


Pitt,  William — Continued 

his  opinion  on  American  re- 
sistance, 298-299  ;  his  inter- 
view with  Grafton,  301  ;  his 
resignation  of  the  Privy  Seal, 
303  ;  his  return  to  active  poli- 
tics and  alliance  with  Rock- 
ingham, 306-310  ;  his  opinion 
on  Burke's  Present  Discon- 
tents^ 310;  on  the  Middlesex 
election,  314-317  ;  attacks 
Mansfield  and  Bute,  318  ;  de- 
clares in  favour  of  Triennial 
Parliaments,  322  ;  his  ideas  on 
Parliamentary     reform,    322- 

325  ;    defence    of    Dissenters, 

326  ;  speech  on  the  Falkland 
Islands  dispute,  328  ;  the 
principles  of  naval  defence, 
329  ;  opposes  dispatch  of 
troops  to  Boston,  337  ;  his 
view  of  the  "  Boston  Tea 
Party,"  340  ;  advocates  leni- 
ency, 342  ;  moves  for  the  re- 
call of  troops  from  Boston, 
345  ;  his  plan  for  settling  the 
troubles  in  America,  347-352  ; 
his  withdrawal  from  public 
life  (Feb.,  1775-May,  1777), 
352  ;  forbids  his  son  to  serve 
against  the  Americans,  353  ; 
his  opinion  in  July^  1776,  354  ; 
moves  an  address  for  cessation 
of  hostilities,  356-358  ;  his 
invective  against  the  employ- 
ment of  Indians,  358  ;  his 
policy  after  the  American  alli- 
ance with  France,  360-363  ; 
public  anxiety  for  his  return 
to  power,  363  ;  his  last  speech, 
364 ;  his  death,  365  ;  his  per- 
sonality considered,  366-371  ; 
international  results  of  his 
great  administration,  371-377; 
his  career  a  preparation  for  the 
democratic  revolution,  378  ; 
character  of  his  oratory,  380 ; 
his  supposed  knowledge  of  the 
Family  Compact  of  1761,  383- 
385. 


Pompadour,  La,  88,  107 

Pratt,  afterwards  Lord  Camden, 

loi,   212,  241,  260,  264,  270, 

305,  311,  363 
Pulteney,  afterwards  Lord  Bath, 

8,  12,  19,  38,  191 


Quebec,  siege  of,  142 
Quiberon  Bay,  152 

R 

Richmond,   Duke  of,   266,   272, 

287,  333,  364 
Robinson,  Sir  Thomas,   51,  58, 

60 
Rochefort,    expedition    against, 

122 
Rockingham,    Marquis  of,    213, 

233,  235,   238,  249,  262,  271, 

284,   291,  302,  305,  308,  316, 

333,  360 
Rossbach,  battle  of,  124 


Sackville,  Lord  George,  150,  356 
Saratoga,  356 
Saunders,  Admiral,  143 
Shelburne,   Lord,   4,    198,    215, 

250,   271,    282,  284,  300,  304, 

306,  333,  354,  366 
Smith,  Adam,  225-226 
Stanley,  Hans,  168,  182,  277 
Supplies  voted  for  the  war  under 

Pitt,  97,  127,  138,  155,  165 


Temple,  Lord,  10,  42,  75,  94, 
100,  180,  235,  263,  269,  304 

Townshend,  Charles,  166,  236, 
249,  271,  282,  292,  294,  299, 
305 


Vergennes,  M.  de,  354 


Index, 


391 


w 

Walpole,  Sir  Robert,  afterwards 
Earl  of  Orford,  6,   7,    10,   17, 

19 

Walpole,  Horace,  the  elder,  af- 
terward Lord  Walpole,  18 

Walpole,  Horace,  the  younger, 
22,  51,  218,  268,  289 

Westminster,  Treaty  of  (1756), 
84 


Wilkes,  John,  2IO,  216,  312 
Williams,  Charles  Hanbury,   5, 

83 
Wolfe,  General,  122,   129,   139, 

144 
Wyndham,  Sir  William,  8 


Yarmouth,  Lady,  91 


Heroes  of  the  Nations. 


EDITED  BY 


EVELYN  ABBOTT,  M.A., 
Fellow  of  Balliol  College,  Oxforc 


A  Series  of  biographical  studies  of  the  lives  and  work 
of  a  number  of  representative  historical  characters  about 
whom  have  gathered  the  great  traditions  of  the  Nations 
to  which  they  belonged,  and  who  have  been  accepted,  in 
many  instances,  as  types  of  the  several  National  ideals. 
With  the  life  of  each  typical  character  will  be  presented 
a  picture  of  the  National  conditions  surrounding  him 
during  his  career. 

The  narratives  are  .the  work  of  writers  who  are  recog- 
nized authorities  on  their  several  subjects,  and,  while 
thoroughly  trustworthy  as  history,  will  present  picturesque 
and  dramatic  "  stories  "  of  the  Men  and  of  the  events  con- 
nected with  them. 

To  the  Life  of  each  "  Hero  **  will  be  given  one  duo- 
decimo volume,  handsomely  printed  in  large  type,  pro- 
vided with  maps  and  adequately  illustrated  according  to 
the  special  requirements  of  the  several  subjects.  The 
volumes  will  be  sold  separately  as  follows : 

Large  12°,  cloth  extra $i  50 

Half  morocco,  uncut  edges,  gilt  top     •        •        *       I  75 


HEROES  OF  THE  NATIONS, 


A  series  of  biographical  studies  of  the  lives  and  work  of 
certain  representative  historical  characters,  about  whom  have 
gathered  the  great  traditions  of  the  Nations  to  which  they 
belonged,  and  who  have  been  accepted,  in  many  instances,  as 
types  of  the  several  National  ideals. 

The  volumes  will  be  sold  separately  as  follows  :  cloth  extra, 
$1.50  ;  half  leather,  uncut  edges,  gilt  top,  $1075. 

The  following  are  now  ready  : 


NELSON.    By  W.  Clark  Russell. 

GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.  By  C. 
R.  L.  Fletcher. 

PERICLES.    By  Evelyn  Abbott. 

THEODORIC  THE  GOTH.  By 
Thomas  Hodgkin. 

SIR  PHILIP  SIDNEY.  By.  H.  R. 
Fox- Bourne. 

JULIUS  CMSAR.  By  W.  Warde 
Fowler. 

WYCLIF.    By  Lewis  Sergeant. 

NAPOI^EON.  By  "W.  O'Connor  Mor- 
ris. 

HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.  By  P.  F. 
Willert. 

CICERO.  By  J.  L.  Strachan-David- 
son. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  By  Noah 
Brooks. 

PRINCE  HENRY  (OF  PORTUGAL) 
THE  NAVIGATOR.  By  C.  R. 
Beazley. 

JULIAN  THE  PHILOSOPHER. 
By  Alice  Gardner. 

LOUIS  XIV.    By  Arthur  Hassall. 

CHARLES  XII.    By  R.  Nisbet  Bain. 

LORENZO  DE'  MEDICI.  By  Ed- 
ward Armstrong. 


JEANNE  D'ARC.   By  Mrs.  Oliphant. 

CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS.  By 
Washington  Irving. 

ROBERT  THE  BRUCE.  By  Sit 
Herbert  Maxwell. 

HANNIBAL.  By  W.  O'Connor  Mor- 
ris. 

ULYSSES  S.  GRANT.  By  William 
Conant  Church. 

ROBERT  E.  LEE.  By  Henry  Alex- 
ander White. 

THE  CID  CAMPEADOR.  By  H. 
Butler  Clarke. 

SALADIN.     By  Stanley  Lane-Poole. 

BISMARCK.     ByJ.  W.  Headlam. 

ALEXANDER  THE  GREAT.  By 
Benjamin  I.  Wheeler. 

CHARLEMAG4SIE.  By  H.  W.  C. 
Davis. 

OLIVER  CROMWELL.  By  Charles 
Firth. 

RICHELIEU.    By  James  B.  Perkins. 

DANIEL  O'CONNELL.  By  Robert 
Dunlop. 

SAINT  LOUIS  (Louis  IX.,  of  France). 
By  Frederick  Perry. 

LORD  CHATHAM.  ty  Walli^rd 
Davis  Green. 


Other  volumes  in  preparation  are  : 


OWEN  GLYNDWR.  By  Arthur  G. 
Bradley. 

HENRY  V.  By  Charles  L.  Kings- 
ford. 

EDWARD  I.    By  Edward  Jenks. 

MOLTKE.  By  Spencef  Wilkin- 
son. 

JUDAS  MACCABiEUS.  By  Israel 
Abrahams.  | 

SOBIESKT.     By  F.  A.  Pollard.  i 


ALFRED    THE    TRUTHTEl 

By  Frederick  Perry. 
FREDERICK  II.     By  A.  L.  Smith. 
MARLBOROUGH.       By    C.    W.    C. 

Omar. 
RICHARD  THE  LION-HEARTL     . 

By  T.  A.  Archer. 
WILLIAM  THE  SILENT.    By  Ruth 

Putnam. 
JUSTINIAN.     By  Edward  Jenks. 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS,  Publishers,  New  York  and  London. 


The  Story  of  the  Nations. 


Messrs.  G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS  take  pleasure  in 
announcing  that  they  have  in  course  of  publication,  in 
co-operation  with  Mr.  T.  Fisher  Unwin,  of  London,  a 
series  of  historical  studies,  intended  to  present  in  a  graphic 
manner  the  stories  of  the  different  nations  that  have 
attained  prominence  in  history. 

In  the  story  form  the  current  of  each  national  life  is 
distinctly  indicated,  and  its  picturesque  and  noteworthy 
periods  and  episodes  are  presented  for  the  reader  in  their 
philosophical  relation  to  each  other  as  well  as  to  universal 
history. 

It  is  the  plan  of  the  writers  of  the  different  volumes  to 
enter  into  the  real  life  of  the  peoples,  and  to  bring  them 
before  the  reader  as  they  actually  lived,  labored,  and 
struggled — as  t.hey  studied  and  wrote,  and  as  they  amused 
themselves.  In  carrying  out  this  plan,  the  myths,  with 
which  the  history  of  all  lands  begins,  will  not  be  over- 
looked, though  these  will  be  carefully  distinguished  from 
the  actual  history,  so  far  as  the  labors  of  the  accepted 
historical  authorities  have  resulted  in  definite  conclusions. 

The  subjects  of  the  different  volumes  have  been  planned 
to  cover  connecting  and,  as  far  as  possible,  consecutive 
epochs  or  periods,  so  that  the  set  when  completed  will 
present  in  a  comprehensive  narrative  the  chief  events  in 
the  great  STORY  OF  THE  NATIONS ;  but  it  is,  of  course, 
not  always  practicable  to  issue  the  several  volumes  in 
their  chronological  order. 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  NATIONS. 

The  "Stones"  are  printed  in  good  readable  type,  and  in 
handsome  i2mo  form.  They  are  adequately  illustrated  and 
furnished  with  maps  and  indexes.  Price  per  vol.,  cloth,  $1.50  ; 
half  morocco,  gilt  top,  $1.75. 

The  following  are  now  ready  : 

GREECE.    Prof.  Jas.  A.  Harrison. 
ROME.    Arthur  Oilman. 
THE  JEWS.  Prof.  James  K.  Hosmer. 
CHALDEA.    Z.  A.  Ragozin. 
GERMANY.    S.  Baring-Gould. 
NORWAY.    Hjalmar  H.  Boyesen. 
SPAIN.    Rev.  E.  E.  and  Susan  Hale. 


HUNGARY.     Prof.  A.  Vdmb6ry. 
CARTHAGE.  Prof.  Alfred  J.  Church. 
THE  SARACENS.    Arthur  Oilman. 
THE  MOORS  IN  SPAIN.     Stanley 

Lane-Poole. 
THE  NORMANS.  Sarah  Ornejewett. 
PERSIA.     S.  O.  W^.  Benjamin. 
ANCIENT  EGYPT.    Prof.  Geo.  Raw- 

linson. 
ALEXANDER'S  EMPIRE.     Prof.  J. 

P.  Mahaffy. 
ASSYRIA.    Z.  A.  Ragozin. 
THE  GOTHS.     Henry  BriJley. 
IRELAND.     Hon.  Emily  Lawless. 
TURKEY.     Stanley  Lane-Poole. 
MEDIA,  BABYLON,  AND  PERSIA. 

Z.  A.  Ragozin. 
MEDIEVAL  FRANCE.    Prof,  Gus- 

tave  Masson. 
HOLLAND.  Prof.  J.  Thorold  Rogers. 
MEXICO.     Susan  Hale. 
PHOENICIA.    Geo.  Rawlinson. 
THE  HANSA  TOWNS.    Helen  Zim- 

mern. 
EARLY  BRITAIN. 

Church, 
THE  BARBARY  CORSAIRS. 

ley  Lane-Pool, 
RUSSIA.    W^.  R.  Morfill, 
THE  JEWS  UNDER  ROME.   W,D. 

Morrison. 
SCOTLAND.    John  Mackintosh. 
SWITZERLAND.  R.  Stead  and  Mrs. 

A.  Hug. 
PORTUGAL.    H.  Morse-Stephens. 
THE  BYZANTINE  EMPIRE.  C.  W, 

C.  Oman. 
SICILY.     E.  A.  Freeman. 
THE  TUSCAN  REPUBLICS. 

Duffy. 
POLAND. 
f>ARTHIA. 


Prof.  Alfred  J, 


Stan- 


Bella 


W.  R.  Morfill. 
Geo.  Rawlinson. 


JAPAN,    David  Murray, 

THE  CHRISTIAN  RECOVERY  OP 

SPAIN.    H.  E.  W^atta. 
AUSTRALASIA.       Greville  Trcgar. 

then. 
SOUTHERN    AFRICA,        Geo.    M. 

Theal. 

VENICE.    AletheaWiel. 
THE  CRUSADES.    T.  S.  Archer  and 

C.  L.  Kingsford. 
VEDIC  INDIA.    Z.  A.  Ragozin. 
BOHEMIA.    C.  E.  Maurice. 
CANADA.    J.  G.  Bourinot. 
THE  BALKAN  STATES.    William 

Miller. 
BRITISH  RULE  IN  INDIA.    R,  W, 

Frazer. 
MODERN  FRANCE.    Andr6  LeBon. 
THE  BUILDINGOF THE  BRITISH 

EMPIRE.    Alfred  T.  Story.    Two 

vols. 
THE  FRANKS.    Lewis  Sergeant. 
THE    WEST    INDIES.      Amos   K. 

Fiske. 
THE   PEOPLE   OF   ENGLAND   IN 

THE  19TH    CENTURY.      Justin 

McCarthy,  M.P.     Two  vols. 
AUSTRIA,   THE    HOME  OF   THK 

HAPSBURG  DYNASTY,  FROM 

1283  TO  THE   PRESENT  DAY. 

Sidney  W^hitman. 
CHINA.     Robt.  K.  Douglass. 
MODERN  SPAIN.     Major  Martin  A. 

S.  Hume. 
MODERN  ITALY.     Pietro  Orsi. 
THE  THIRTEEN  COLONIES. 

Helen  A.  Smith.    Two  vols. 
Other  volumes  in  preparation  are  : 
THE    UNITED    STATES,    1775  1897. 

Prof.    A.    C.    McLaughlin.       Two 

vols. 
BUDDHIST    INDIA.      Prof.    T.   W. 

Rhys-Davids. 
MOHAMMEDAN    INDIA.      StanUj 

Lane-Poole. 
WALES  AND  CORNWALL,     Owen 

M.  EdwardSe 


Heroes  of  the  Nations. 


PER  VOLUME,  CLOTH,  $1.50.      HALF  MORpCCO,  $1.75. 


I. — Nelson.     By  W.  Clark  Russell. 
II. — Gustavus  Adolphus.     By  C.  R.  L.  Fletcher,  M.A. 
III. — Pericles.     By  Evelyn  Abbott,  M.A. 
IV. — Theodoric  the  Goth.    By  Thomas  Hodgkin. 
v.— Sir  Philip  Sidney.     By  H.  R.  Fox-Bourne. 
VI. — Julius  Caesar.    By  W.  Warde  Fowler,  M.A. 
VII. — Wyclif.     By  Lewis  Sergeant. 
VIII. — Napoleon.     By  William  O'Connor  Morris. 
IX. — Henry  of  Navarre.     By  P.  F.  Willert. 
X. — Cicero.     By  J.  L.  Strachan-Davidson,  M.A. 
XI. — Abraham  Lincoln.     By  Noah  Brooks. 
XII.— Prince  Henry.     By  C.  R.  Beazley. 
XIII. — Julian  the  Philosopher.     By  Alice  Gardner. 
XIV.— Louis  XIV.    By  Arthur  Hassall,  M.A. 
XV.— Charles  XII.     By  R.  Nisbet  Bain. 
XVI. — Lorenzo  de'  Medici.     By  Edward  Armstrong. 
XVII.— Jeanne  d'Arc.     By  Mrs.  Oliphant. 
XVIII.— Christopher  Columbus.     By  Washington  Irving. 
XIX.— Robert  the  Bruce.     By  Sir  Herbert  Maxwell,  M.P. 
XX.— Hannibal.     By  William  O'Connor  Morris. 
XXI.— U.  S.  Grant.     By  W.  Conant  Church. 
XXII.— Robert  E.  Lee.     By  Henry  A.  White. 
XXIII. — The  Cid  Campeador.     By  H.  Butler  Clarke. 
XXIV.— Saladin.     By  Stanley  Lane-Poole. 
XXV.— Bismarck.     By  J.  W.  Headlam,  M.A. 
XXVL— Alexander  the  Great.— By  Benjamin  I.  Wheeler, 
XXVII.— Charlemagne.     By  H.  W.  C.  Davis. 
XXVIII.— Oliver  Cromwell.     By  Charles  Firth. 
XXIX.— Richelieu.     By  James  B.  Perkins. 
XXX.— Daniel  O'Connell.     By  Robert  Dunlop. 
XXXI.— Saint  Louis.     By  Frederick  Perry. 
XXXIL— Lord  Chatham.     By  Walford  Davis  Green. 


G  P  PUTNAM'S  SONS,  New  York  and  London 


iberoes  of  tbe  IFlattons 

EDITED   BV 

Evelyn  Bbbott,  Ob.'R. 

FELLOW  OF  BALLIOL  COLLEGE,  OXFORD 


FACTA  DUOIS  VIVENT,  0PER08AQUE 
GLORIA  RERUM.  — OVID,  IN  LIVIAM   26S. 
THE  HERO'S  DEEDS  AND  HARD'WON 
FAME  SHALL  LIVE. 


WILLIAM  PITT 

EARL  OF  CHATHAM 


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